


Dragons in Hogwarts.

by NazdurukBugzappa



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, モンスター娘のいる日常 | Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou, 小林さんちのメイドラゴン | Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon | Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:47:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22570474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NazdurukBugzappa/pseuds/NazdurukBugzappa
Summary: Five years ago, 'Harry Potter' died due to an unfortunate combination of an unexploded WWII bomb in a construction site and the compulsion-wards a certain wizard with too many names placed around Surrey to stop anyone noticing his living conditions.Dorea has been living in her Animagus form, an Ushishir Thunderwing, with her adopted family, ever since she was rescued as a six-year-old by ICEP agents. Her life changes when she receives a parchment envelope addressed in green ink.The letter says she can bring an owl....her owl-harpy Familiar counts, doesn't it?
Comments: 11
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

Dragons in Hogwarts  
Chapter 1

Privet Drive was a ‘perfectly normal’ street in a ‘perfectly normal’ neighbourhood of prefabricated, standard template houses. Over five years ago, the sight of the patrol car would have resulted in twitched curtains and not-so-quiet whispers. These days, the gossips don’t really notice it. They are used to one of the local officers collecting young Dudley every Saturday. They think the nice officer is taking him on an excursion, as a distraction, while his mother gets her regular house-call from a doctor after the home-invasion incident when he was younger. What they don’t know, is Dudley is visiting his father, who is in jail for defrauding the government over ‘caring’ for his cousin Harry. His father was also doing time for cooking the Books at Grunnings. Dudley wasn’t happy with his father’s actions, but he was _still_ his father, and Dudley was no longer the selfish prick he was when he was six.

Five years ago, Dudley was a spoiled-brat, and grossly overweight. To the casual observer, it would be an even-bet as to whether he would have his first heart attack or his first jail stint by the age of twelve. These days, while he was still a little bit pudgy, he was getting healthier, and the regular boxing lessons he took twice a week at the YMCA helped to channel his aggressive impulses.

Dudley waved goodbye to the Sergeant and, instead of heading for the front door, took the side gate, where he heard voices coming from the garden. Inside were two girls. They were both slightly taller than he was and could easily be mistaken for sisters. One had red hair with pink tips, and the other had leaf-green hair with red tips.  
“Hi Dudley,” greeted the red-haired girl, as she trimmed back one of the rose bushes. This was his cousin, Dorea. Dudley was one of the few people who knew this, and he had only figured it out by accident.

As far as the neighbourhood was concerned, Dorea was one of the daughters of a high-up from the Interspecies Cultural Exchange Program and his ‘delinquent’ cousin, Harry, died in a construction site accident while skipping school. The official police report says that Harry fell down an embankment, and triggered an unexploded WWII bomb the builders had uncovered while preparing the newly-extended Hyacinth Drive for new houses. He only found out after he had figured out who Dorea really was, that her adoptive parents used their contacts in the government to kill ‘Harry’ with a claymore-mine and something called a quick-clone.  
Dorea stood up and stretched, unfurling her wings as she did so. “Aunt Petunia’s check-up should be done soon.” Small sparks of lightning travelled from her pink-tipped red hair to her red-and-pink feathered wings.

Yeah, his cousin is a dragon.

…well, sort of. From what he understood, there was a special type of magic that allowed a witch or wizard to change to and from an animal, such as a bear or an owl. Due to various circumstances, of which Dudley wasn’t proud, ‘Harry’ ended up being rescued, and then adopted, by an _actual_ dragon. After being checked over by their family doctor, and removing several spells placed on her as an infant, it turned out that Uncle James and Aunt Lily had used magic to disguise their child as a boy. Given what the bad guys did to girls in some of the movies he watched, he understood why.

Dorea’s magic responded to her new situation by latching on to her adopted family, and her magic changed her to blend in. Dudley knew Dorea could still change back to being human, but because her ‘dragon self’ can change into a humanoid form, and she doesn’t feel safe as a human, Dorea doesn’t _**want** _ to change back.

Dudley doesn’t blame her. Not long after ‘Harry’ died a wizard showed up, stunned him, and tried to forcibly drag the information on what happened to ‘Harry’ from his mother’s mind, leaving her drooling on the floor and with no memories beyond when she was fifteen. Once a week, a doctor from ICEP comes and checks up on her, both to see if any of her former memories have returned, and to ensure she hasn’t had further memory loss. The doctors that usually come are either one of Dorea’s adoptive parents, or her adoptive aunt.

“So, is he talking to you yet?” asked Dorea, referring to his Dad.

“Sort of,” replied Dudley. “He’s still not happy about the whole ‘magic’ thing. Dad also still blames you for his being in there.”

“At least he’s stopped demanding that the prison Chaplain ‘exorcise’ you,” commented Violet, Dorea’s older ‘sister’ (by only a few days) and a different type of dragon. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Dudley conceded. “Even without the faulty blood wards that used to be around this place, Dad is a bad person, but he’s still my Dad.”

Violet unwound a set of vines from her red-tipped green hair, without using her hands, ran a hand through it, and rewound the vines.  
“I wish I could do that,” Dorea commented jokingly, as she readjusted her own hair-ties with her hands. “Being part Dryad has its perks.”

“There you are, Dudley,” commented Petunia from the back door. “Fern has ordered a car to collect her and the girls. Do you want to go to the park with them?”

Around ten minutes later, a Land Rover belonging to the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce rolled into the driveway. Fern, an adult Dryad (and one of Violet’s parents) stepped out of the front door to greet the driver, a slender 20-year-old woman with auburn hair, wearing a British Army uniform with UNIT insignias. Her ID-badge proclaimed her to be ‘Shizu Pleiades, UNIT-ICEP liaison’.

“Aunt Shizu!” chorused the girls, as they rushed out to hug the woman.

“I still don’t agree with their lifestyle,” Petunia whispered to Dudley, “But it’s good that they love their children, and treat Dorea as one of their own, which is something I am shocked that my past self could never do. I cannot believe I became that petty and jealous over Lily being a witch.”

Dudley was still piecing together how Dorea’s family was structured. From what he could figure out, Violet’s parents were Fern and Mizuchi (although he still couldn’t figure out how the Dryad and Dragon could have a baby, as they were both female). Fern also had a boyfriend, a wizard called Reg. One of Violet’s little sisters, Venus, was their child. They also had another sister, Juniper, who was a human-sized version of one of Fern’s Hornet-pixies. The girl in the Land Rover, Shizu, was Mizuchi’s girlfriend (he caught them kissing a couple of times). Surprisingly, the four adults didn’t get into fights over ‘sharing’ each other. The adults all love their children, even the ones they weren’t the ‘actual’ parents of. What was there to disapprove of?

Shizu stood up, after she finished hugging the girls. “These arrived in Friday’s mail-drop. Magic-division say they’re clean.” She produced several letters and handed one to Dudley.  
Dudley examined the letter in his hands. It was made from that fancy ‘parchment’ stuff that his friend Raymond’s mum used for her calligraphy projects. It was addressed in green ink:

_**Mr D Dursley**  
The second bedroom,  
4 Privet Drive,  
Little Whinging, Surrey.  
Deliver via the mail room,  
UNIT HQ  
London. _

Petunia gasped. “Is that what I think it is?” she asked.

“Yes,” replied Shizu. “That is Dudley’s invitation to attend Hogwarts.”

“I thought the owls delivered then directly,” Petunia commented.

“They do,” replied Shizu. “However, in order to remove all of those Wards that were woven over Surrey, Mizuchi destabilised the ley-lines in the area. Owls cannot track anyone accurately around here, so we have mail redirection runes to send the owls to either UNIT HQ or the nearest ICEP office.”

Dorea looked confused and held up both of her letters. “Why have I got two?”

“I’m not sure,” Shizu replied. “Considering the Magical Government has only just agreed to let demi-humans and suchlike to attend Hogwarts, my best guess is that your magic signature when you’re a dragon is sufficiently different to when you’re human that it has confused whatever system sends out the letters.”  
Dudley craned over her shoulder and looked at the letters. The first one was addressed as:

_**Miss D Kobayashi**  
The Second bed, Northern bedroom,  
Artificial Satellite Pleiades,  
Magellan’s Cluster.  
Deliver via the mail room,  
UNIT HQ,  
London _

The second letter had the same location and delivery instructions but was addressed to ‘Miss D Peverell-Potter’ instead.  
A devilish grin appeared on Fern’s face. “Mizuchi’s going to have a field day with this.”

===//===

Minerva McGonagall placed the stack of reply letters that she had just divided between herself, Fillius and Pomona on the desk. This year was most important for two reasons. The first being that Albus had stopped being stubborn and finally removed those spells from the Book of Names, allowing those with creature inheritances to enrol. The second being James’ and Lily’s child was due to start this year. As she read through them, she sorted them between ‘attending’, ‘not attending’ and ‘muggle-born guide needed’ in front of her.  
Six replies in, and Minerva gasped. She removed a familiar sheet of pink paper from the muggle envelope, and tipped it upside down, to have another envelope fall onto her desk. It was larger than the first envelope. There was only one person she knew who could make an envelope bigger on the inside without using charms or runes. Minerva picked up the page and read:

_Dear Deputy Headmistress McGonagall,  
Thank you for your letters inviting my children to attend Hogwarts. They have expressed their interest in attending, primarily because Dorea’s biological parents were former students and she feels that going to the same school as them might allow her to make a connection with them.  
Please find enclosed medical and dietary documents for Madame Pomphrey. ICEP will also provide extra funding for the increased food budget. Please inform the House-elves, so they may adjust accordingly.  
Additionally, we can provide some of our people to assist with guiding the Squib-born children for their first trip to Diagon Alley.  
Mizuchi Kobayashi-O’Reilly  
PS: We need to meet sometime, to discuss Dorea’s bonded Familiar. _

===//===

Georgie Paladin was talking to her new friend, Hermione Granger, while waiting with their parents, in front of the old record store on Charing Cross road. Everyone was soon joined by Professor McGonagall.

“Good morning Professor,” greeted Mr Paladin. “You mentioned there would be some more people coming.”

“Yes,” replied the witch. “We have a family of demi-humans joining us.”

They heard, then saw, the arrival of the demi-human family mere moments later.

Approaching the group were two adults and four children.

The first adult was around average height and size, had pointed ears and leaf-green hair. There were vines draped over her shoulders. She was dressed similarly to a government employee. She looked like the ‘typical’ image of a Dryad from her story books, except she was wearing clothing. There were even several Hornet-pixies swarming in and out of the Dryad’s hair.

The other adult was six feet tall and quite curvy. She had swept-back horns protruding from her blue-tipped red hair and had purple dragon-scaled wings with pale blue membranes. She was wearing yellow-tinted glasses and a pale blue, floor-length, silk dress. Her bladed tail protruded from near the top of the dress’ skirt. She was obviously a dragon, or at least part-dragon.

Hovering backwards, slightly ahead of the group, was a human-sized Hornet-pixie. She was wearing mechanic’s overalls over a modified pink t-shirt (with four sleeves, and holes cut out for her wings) and loosely wore a tool belt around her waist. Her four arms were gesticulating expressively, as she spoke to the one of the smaller Hornet-pixies.

On the right of the group was a girl with a mixture of the Dryad’s and the Dragon’s features. The red tips on her leaf-green hair were the same shade as the adult dragon, and it was obvious that she was their child. She was dressed similarly to the adult dragon, but in pale green. _I’ll have to ask mummy and daddy how two girls can have babies,_ she thought to herself.

In the centre of the group was a girl with pink-tipped red hair. She had similar glasses to the adult dragon and was dressed in Emerald-green. She was another dragon, but with feathers instead of scales.

The last member of the group was a Harpy. Her feathers and hair were almost pure white, with black tips. She was wearing a pink tank-top, to keep freedom of movement for her wings. Bike shorts could clearly be seen protruding under her violet skirt. She was also clinging tightly to the feathered dragon’s arm.

As they began making their introductions to each other, Professor McGonagall was mildly surprised to find out the Granger family were acquainted with the Kobayashi family. Both dentists provided services to patients from London’s ICEP medical services, and the Dryad (Fern) was their face-to-face contact with the organisation.

While Fern was making the introductions, Mizuchi (the adult dragon) squatted down to make eye-contact with Georgie. “Good job with your human form.” She spoke quietly, so the humans couldn’t hear. “Don’t give me that look. I know you’re a dragon. Both of my parents were human too …well, close enough to human… I was just lucky enough to grow up in an environment where I didn’t have to hide my wings. I’m sure if you ask them, my daughters will teach you how to fly.”

“H-how did you know?” asked Georgie.

Mizuchi gave her a strange look. “It’s your eyes. People don’t usually look too closely.” She lowered her glasses, and Georgie noticed that Mizuchi’s green eyes had vertical-slit pupils instead of the ‘normal’ round ones. Mizuchi stood up and straightened her dress. “Never be ashamed of who you truly are.”

“If everyone is ready,” McGonagall stated. “Let’s head inside.”

===//===

The looks of wonder on the Paladins’ and Grangers’ faces as the archway to Diagon unfolded was priceless. Anticipating this, Mizuchi had Gated to the other side a few minutes earlier, with a camera at the ready. “What? None of you thought to capture some photos?” she laughed. “I’ll send you copies.” She tossed Mr Granger and Mr Paladin a disposable camera each. “Here. You should capture your daughters’ important milestone.”

The newcomers looked around in wonder, as they headed towards the bank. Everything was so colourful. Once they arrived near the bank’s entrance, they read the sign with the warning and walked up to the door. Moments later, they were startled by a girl’s voice.

“VIOLET!”

Violet was suddenly crash-tackled to the ground by another dragon. She was dressed all in black, had light brown skin, and olive-green hair and wings.

“Fellblade! Gerroff!” laughed Violet.

“Make me!” Fellblade laughed back.

At McGonagall’s disapproving look, Fellblade got off her friend. “Grumpy-ass wand waver,” she grumbled.

“Don’t be like that,” said Dorea. “She’s the Deputy Headmistress. It’s her job to disapprove of us acting like ruffians.”

Fellblade looked up. “Is Juniper coming?”

“Yep,” replied the Hornet-girl, popping her ‘p’. “I had to defer my apprenticeship with 2nd Aviation Regiment. They got deployed.”

Fellblade pouted at the reply. “That sucks. I know how much you wanted to be a helicopter mechanic.”

“Minerva, allow me to introduce Fellblade Gringott,” said Mizuchi.

“Gringott?” McGonagall asked. “She’s goblin-raised? I was expecting a goblin student.”

“Culturally, she is a goblin,” confirmed Fern. “ Fellblade just gets some extra freedoms, not usually given to goblin children, due to needing to fly and needing to hunt. None of the dragons here were exactly raised normally. So, are we getting supplies as one big group, or are we splitting into smaller groups?”

“Given how cramped most of the stores are,” Mizuchi replied, “splitting into smaller groups would be better. Hermione should have access to the Dagworth-Granger vault, and Georgie being dragon-kin means that Empress Ragnarok will pay her education costs.”

“Who’s Empress Ragnarok?” asked Mrs Paladin.

“Me,” replied Mizuchi. “As much as the ‘normal’ dragons don’t like it, because they don’t think I’m a ‘real’ dragon, I’m the Alpha for every single dragon on any planet I step foot on. I have been ever since I witnessed the Untempered Schism. I just didn’t know it until I received the results of my Inheritance Test.”

===//===

Dorea and Hedwig ended up with the Grangers and Professor McGonagall. Hermione’s parents thought it was ‘adorable’ how the Harpy was a hugger.

“Your mother said she needed to talk to me about your Familiar,” McGonagall commented as they left Madam Malkins. “It is rare for someone so young to have one. However, the law is clear that we cannot deny you your Familiar.”

“That’s good to know,” replied Dorea, as she pulled her Harpy friend closer. “Hedwig is my Familiar.”

“WHAT?!” Hermione screeched, causing several people passing by to turn their heads. They then turned away, dismissing it as ‘just another muggle-born seeing/hearing something new’. “Owning another sentient being is wrong!”

“Not so loud, my ears are sensitive.” said Hedwig, as she took her wings off her ears. “Dorea has made it perfectly clear she doesn’t ‘own’ me. However, the bond has its benefits. For example, I get to share Dorea’s magic, and if it wasn’t for the Familiar Bond letting me ‘tap’ her magical core, I’d only be equivalent to a squib.”

McGonagall gestured to their next stop: Ollivander’s Wands. The six of them entered.

Half a dozen ‘failed’ wands later, and Hermione was the proud owner of a nine-inch vine wand, with a Unicorn-hair core.

“Dorea, we’ll need to sort out your wand next,” Ollivander commented. “It will affect the type of wand that will accept your Familiar.”

“Understood,” replied Dorea, as she stepped forward.

“Uh, Dorea…” Ollivander started. “I can’t start with you like that.”

“Fine,” Dorea almost whispered.

Hedwig stepped away from Dorea, faced the door, and transfigured her flight feathers to some sort of metal. It was like she was suddenly standing guard.

_That’s a very impressive partial self-transfiguration,_ thought McGonagall. _Why is she suddenly all defensive?_

McGonagall turned at the collective gasp of the Grangers.  
…and nearly passed out from shock…

_She looks just like Lily,_ McGonagall thought. “M-miss Potter?”

After five years in hiding, and almost ten years since she personally last saw her, Dorea Potter was in front of her!

McGonagall looked angrily at Ollivander. “You knew!?”

“Yes, I knew,” Ollivander replied. “Most of the Retailers’ Association know.” Ollivander chuckled. “Thanks to Dorea’s adoptive parents, we’re protected from thieves Obliviating us to hide their theft, I don’t have to dance to that old coot’s tune, when it comes to who gets certain wands.” He laughed as he placed a box on the counter and opened it. “Dorea, could you pick this wand up for me please? A certain wizard was insistent that I made sure you had it.”

Dorea shrugged and picked up the wand.

“Nothing,” Dorea commented.

Ollivander looked McGonagall in the eyes. “All Dorea can do with that wand is poke someone or throw it at them.”

“This is wand has a Phoenix feather core, right?” Dorea asked.

“Yes,” Ollivander confirmed.

She looked back at McGonagall. “One of the down sides of being a Dragon, even an Animagus one, is that our magic is incompatible with Phoenix magic.” An ornate sword suddenly materialised in her free hand. “ **This** is my current spell-focus, but waving this around in Charms class could cause some issues.”

Twenty minutes later, and Dorea was back in her dragon form, sliding her Dryad-wood and Thunderbird-feather wand into her wrist holster.  
Hedwig’s wand was chosen much easier. It was made from the same materials but was only an inch shorter.

They spent an hour longer than ‘planned’ in Flourish & Blotts. _Now I know why the bookstore was at the end of our itinerary. These three are Ravenclaws for sure._


	2. Chapter 2

Dragons in Hogwarts  
Chapter 2

Dudley stood near the barrier for platform 10 at Kings Cross, with Dorea and her sisters, while they waited for their cousins to arrive. They were all wearing their Hogwarts uniforms, minus the outer robes, so they looked more like a group of ‘normal’ boarding school students waiting for their friends. Silently, he was grateful the passers-by saw nothing out of the ordinary.

_I suppose over ten years of seeing demi-humans out and about has made most people see them as just another type of person,_ Dudley thought, as he watched a Centaur in a police uniform canter past alongside a Kobold. He then saw two blonde boys, one with a bomber jacket over his uniform, a red-haired boy with sunglasses and a white staff and a blonde girl. approaching. He remembered them from his trip to Dorea's Aunts and Uncle. Draco, Leo, Azrael and Lyra. They were accompanied by a woman with two-tone hair, pushing a luggage trolley.

“Sally isn’t coming?” Dudley asked.

“The cold would kill her,” replied the woman. “I’m still reluctant about Azrael’s parents letting him go. A blind person in an environment with moving architecture is a bad idea.”

“I’m blind?” Azrael sarcastically commented. “That would explain everything being nothing but shadows.”

“Tsk,” replied the woman. “Don’t be a smart-ass.”

“Sorry Miss Black,” he apologised. “I still want it on record that I formally protest that I have to use this stupid thing instead of the staff Mum made for me.” He ‘looked’ over at Dudley. “You like my sister, don’t you? She says you blush, and look away, whenever you spot her.”

Before Dudley could reply they were interrupted by a loud voice. “What’s up smegheads!?” Fellblade called out. She was flanked by Hermione and Georgie.

“I never should have introduced her to that show,” Dr Granger apologised

Miss Black looked at the high-tech watch on her wrist. “You lot better head through the barrier. The train leaves in about twenty minutes.”

Shortly after the group went through the barrier, Dr Granger noticed a family of redheads rushing to get their luggage out of a Ford Anglia. He noticed the dirty look the mother gave, as the twin boys waved hello to Miss Black.

“Mrs Weasley still likes to hold a grudge,” commented Miss Black. “She can’t accept that people can change …or that times can. She was quite vocal about her displeasure for ‘dark creatures’ being allowed to go to Hogwarts.”

“Bigots will never truly go away,” Dr Granger shook his head.

===//===

The train was well on its way. Dorea and the other dragons were chatting in their compartment. Hedwig was using Dorea’s lap as a pillow, getting her hair idly stroked. Hermione was in another compartment, playing a card game with Violet’s other sister and their cousins. Dudley had been introduced to Greg and Vincent by Draco and had hit it off immediately. Surprisingly, they were playing chess.

“So, Georgie…” started Dorea, when the door slammed open.

“I heard Dorea Potter is on the train!!” a red-haired boy with a dirty face practically shouted, causing the compartment’s occupants to wince. “Mum says we’re going to be the best of friends!!”

“Don’t you know how to knock, Ron?” Violet stated. “I know Molly didn’t raise you in a barn.”

Ron’s face suddenly contorted into a snarl, as he noticed the girls for the first time. “Bloody half-breeds,” he growled. “What are you doing here?”

“With an attitude like that,” Dorea commented, “good luck making friends.”

“Good luck finding Miss Potter,” said Hedwig, as she half-waved a wing at him. “Maybe she’s further down. The train’s pretty full.”

“I heard she was pretty famous,” said Georgie, as she cottoned on. “They’ve probably sent her to Hogwarts by another means, so she doesn’t get crowded by the,” she focused on Ron’s dirty face, “unwashed masses.”

“There’s still a chance she’s on the train, but she’s in disguise,” Violet added to the conversation. “Didn’t all of those books say the missing Potter child was a boy? Look around for a girl dressed like a boy.”

Fellblade laughed. “Good luck with that. I don’t think the Prefects will appreciate you feeling up people at random.”

“What?” Ron looked confused.

Dorea shook her head. “Denser than neutronium-plate.” She turned her head towards Ron. “I’m sure Miss Potter will show up at the Sorting ceremony.”

Ron slammed the door, cracking the glass in the window, and stormed off.

The five of them were eating chocolate frogs and laughing at Ron’s stupidity, when there was a knock at the door. The door slid open, and they were greeted by a red-haired girl who was already starting to develop, and a brown-haired boy who still hadn’t shed his baby-fat. “Excuse me,” said the girl. “Neville has lost his toad, and we were wondering if you’ve seen it.”

“Susan Bones, right? Mum regularly meets up with your Aunt.” Violet commented. “We haven’t seen a toad, but maybe one of the Prefects could summon it for you.”

“We didn’t think of that,” replied Susan. “We’ll go ask one right now. See you at the Sorting.”

“Bye Susan. Bye Neville,” chorused the five, as Susan closed the door.

===//===

The sun had gone down by the time the train arrived at Hogsmeade Station. Dorea and the others waited a few minutes to exit their compartment, so they wouldn’t get trampled by everyone trying to rush out all at once.

As they watched the upper-year students head towards the carriages, they heard a loud voice calling out.

“Firs’ years! Firs’ years! Over here!”

The various groups of first years clustered around a huge, bearded, man in a brown coat. He was carrying a lantern.

=No threat.= signalled Violet.

=Agreed.= replied Fellblade and Dorea.

“What are you three doing?” whispered Georgie.

“Pack signals,” Hedwig whispered back. “You don’t have hunting instincts?”

“…yes…” Georgie’s reply could barely be heard. “…Dad takes me to Nanna’s farm to hunt rabbits every couple of weeks to get it out of my system… oh, hell… how am I going to deal with it here?”

“Plenty of prey in a forest,” whispered Dorea. Besides, once we teach you to fly, we can hunt further out. We’ll talk about it later.”

“Why are you holding hands with that girl!?” demanded a loud voice, the group recognised as Ron Weasley.

Everyone turned to see the commotion. Ron was actively trying to pry the hand of a blond girl from Azrael. The boy was on the ground with a scared expression on his face. There was a broken white staff on the ground next to him, and the girl was trying to push Ron away.

“Get away from my sister!” ”Get away from my brother!” yelled Draco and Leo simultaneously.

“Mr Weasley!” growled the giant, as he ran back up the path and grabbed Ron by the collar. “Get off ‘em now.”

“It’s not right!” yelled Ron, as he was hauled off the ground.

Draco and Leo ran up to check on their siblings.

“Weasley, you’re an idiot,” said Violet, as she picked up the pieces of the staff. “My cousin is blind. Lyra was assisting Azrael to navigate the path to the boats. Just because he has pointy ears does not give you free reign to attack him.”

There were several gasps among the first-years. Even the giant looked shocked. “Weasley attacked a blind kid?” commented a random boy.

Dorea walked over to Azrael and Leo. “Az, do you want one of us to fly you to the infirmary?”

Draco looked up. “It might be a good idea to take Lyra as well. The bruising on her arm is pretty bad.”

The dragons threw off their outer- robes to free their wings. “Azrael,” Fellblade spoke to the boy, so he wouldn’t startle. “I’m going to lift you now.” She then lifted him up bridal-style, spread her wings and lifted off the ground. Dorea did the same with Lyra. Violet, still holding the broken staff, flew ahead to alert the school nurse.

“Mr Weasley, I’ll be telling Pr’fess’r McGonagall about your behaviour once we get to Hogwarts,” commented the giant. “Everyone, the boats are down the path there. Watch yer step, it might have a coupl’a slipp’ry patches.”

They made their way down the path, with Susan and Hedwig each stopping Neville from sliding downhill at least once. Ten minutes later, they reached a small dock full of oarless rowboats.

“No more than four to a boat!” the giant called out. Unsurprisingly, everyone was reluctant to let Ron join them.

Eventually two boys, Seamus and Dean, relented and let him onto their boat.

“Everyone in a boat?” the giant, Hagrid, asked. “Let’s go!”

The boats moved forwards by themselves and followed Hagrid over the lake.

“In a moment, yeh’ll be getting your first view of ‘ogwarts,” he called out.

There were several ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ as the castle came into view. They cruised over the lake, with Neville almost falling out. Twice. Twenty minutes later, they arrived at another dock, and followed Hagrid up a set of stairs to a large double door. He knocked three times, and the door was opened by a stern-looking witch many of the first years recognised as Professor McGonagall.

“The firs’ years pr’fess’r,” said Hagrid. “Also, we ‘ad a bit of trouble earlier.”

“I’m aware,” McGonagall said, as she looked at Ron. She then led the students to an atrium, meeting Lyra, Azrael and the Dragons. Azrael’s staff was repaired. Dorea, Fellbade and Violet positioned themselves as if to guard the two. Hedwig and Georgie joined them, as Leo tossed the girls their robes. As the students shuffled in, McGonagall was surprised to notice many of the children of traditionally Slytherin families treating them as friends.

“Welcome to Hogwarts,” McGonagall announced. “Before we seat you for the start of year feast, we need to sort you into your Houses. The Houses are named after our founders; Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Slytherin. Each has their own rich history and traditions. While I go check to see if we are ready to start,” she swept her eyes around the room, “I suggest you take the time to smarten yourselves up.”

When McGonagall left through the door to the Great Hall, many students asked Azrael and Lyra if they were okay. Other students openly wondered how they were going to be sorted into their Houses.

“I heard there was a test,” said one.

“I heard you had to wrestle a Troll,” Ron commented.

“We’d be the only survivors, if that was true,” scoffed Dorea. “For all we know, our Houses are chosen randomly out of a hat.”

“It’s kept secret on purpose,” Draco commented.

“Shut up Malfoy,” growled Ron.

“It’s ‘Black’ for your information,” Draco corrected. “We were disowned when Father questioned why we’re still loyal to the Dark Lord, when someone else had the more valid claim as Slytherin’s Heir.”

Half a dozen or so others nodded in agreement, as McGonagall walked back into the room.

The children were asked to line up, and they followed McGonagall into the Great Hall. They were hit by a wall of noise, causing most of the demi-humans to wince and/or cover their ears.

“I still don’t regret being a Dragon,” said Dorea, as her eye twitched.

There were four long tables, with coloured banners above them, seating the students. The red banner had a lion on it, the blue one had a bird, the yellow one had a badger, and the green one had a snake. At the end of the Hall, on a raised platform, was another table. The teachers were seated there.

“Oh, wow!” exclaimed a student who happened to look up.

“It’s enchanted to look like the night sky,” said Hermione. “I read about it in ‘Hogwarts, A History.’”

“What the…” said Dean, looking towards an old three-legged stool with a ratty-looking hat placed on it.

Most of the first-years jumped back, when the hat’s holes and stitches formed a ‘face’ and it started singing. The song described each of the four Houses and caused a few whispers when it mentioned there used to be a fifth. When it finished singing, the other students applauded, and the Sorting Hat bowed to each of the tables.

McGonagall pulled out a scroll. “When I call your names, you will step forward, sit on the stool, and place the Sorting Hat on your head. Abbot, Hannah.”

A blonde girl nervously walked over to the stool and put on the Hat. It was so large; it covered her eyes.

After a few moments, the Hat called out “HUFFLEPUFF!”

Hannah took the Hat off and joined the yellow table, her tie and badge changed colour to match, as she walked.

“Black, Draco.”

There were whispers as he walked towards the stool.

“RAVENCLAW!”

There were even more whispers, as he headed to the table. Violet noticed a flash of confusion on the face of the bearded guy in the bright colours.

“Black, Lyra.”

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

“Bones, Susan.”

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

Names were called. Students were sorted. Eventually, McGonagall called out “Kobayashi, Dorea.”

Dorea placed the Hat on her head.  
 _//Well, well. Hello, Miss Potter, echoed the Hat’s ‘voice’ in her head. Congratulations on becoming an Animagus at six years old, even if the circumstances surrounding it were not so good.  
// **HE** had better find out about that, replied Dorea in her head.  
//Your secret is safe with me. Now, where do I put you? I sense aspects of each of the Houses in you.  
//it’s a pity Sturmdrachen removed all those years ago, and is no longer an option.  
//True, but then I would have been obliged to place Miss Gringott there, and possibly re-sort a number of upper-years.  
//Good point. So, if I get to choose, I would prefer to be with my pack-sister.  
//Very well. _ “RAVENCLAW!”

Dorea headed towards the table, and Hedwig left the group to follow her.

“Professor McGonagall!” called the long-bearded wizard. “That girl hasn’t been sorted.”

“Familiars stay with their Masters,” called out McGonagall, as Hedwig’s robes took on the same blue markings as Dorea’s. “Miss Potter is Miss Kobayashi’s Familiar.”  
He suddenly came down with a fit of coughing, and several voices called out in protest.

“Potter!?”

“Should I just put on the Hat?” Violet asked. “They’re still going to be idiots for a few more minutes.”

“Yes, yes.” McGonagall replied, then raised her voice. “Hedwig Potter is an Owl-Harpy. She is NOT the person you all seem to think she is!” _I really hope he doesn’t figure out why she has that last name,_ McGonagall thought. The scroll was raised again. “Kobayashi, Violet!”

“RAVENCLAW!”

The sorting continued, with many of the students giving strange looks towards the Ravenclaw table.

As the Ps got closer, the long-bearded wizard looked like he was anticipating something. When the only Ps to be sorted were Paladin, Georgie (Hufflepuff) and the Patil twins (one in Gryffindor, the other in Ravenclaw) the wizard momentarily looked panicked. He didn’t notice several sets of eyes noting his expression.

Eventually, the Sorting was completed and the long-bearded wizard, Albus Dumbledore, ‘officially’ began the feast. Students were chatting to each other. Even Ron found some people willing to forgive his impulsive nature (or had similar attitudes to the inclusion of demi-humans in the school).

What questions the students at the Ravenclaw table had about Dorea’s and Hedwig’s Familiar bond were on their faces, but they knew to wait until they were in a more discreet location to ask.

“There seems to be more food here than in previous years,” mentioned Penelope, one of the Prefects.

Violet, having taken on the role of ‘Pack Alpha’ for the time being, replied. “Some demi-humans have higher caloric requirements to wizards, especially those of us with flight-capability.”

“At least you have better table manners than Weasley, over there. It’s disconcerting watching the twins telling someone to behave themselves.”

“If Fred and George cause too much trouble, just send an owl to either Charlotte or Kuroko O’Reilly.”

“Any relation to Leo, over in Slytherin?”

“They’re siblings. So is Azrael, over in Hufflepuff.”

“I might just do that. It just depends on what counts as ‘too much’ to me.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “It’s good to know that they’ll at least listen to _someone_ . Percy said the twins’ relationship with their mother is a bit strained, but he didn’t give details.”

“Mrs Weasley does tend to be overbearing at times. Mr Weasley is fun, but I think Aunt Ventris and Aunt Cass have to distract him from taking things apart, to see how they work, a bit too often for their liking.”

Penelope laughed at that. “He tried to take apart Mum’s clock radio last year.”

“Yeah,” chuckled Violet. “Uncle Hiroshi kept Mr Weasley occupied for hours once, by handing him a UNIT-issue Swiss Army knife.”

“That thing with the laser-pointer?” Penelope laughed. “Percy says he’s still figuring it out.”

===//===

Percy Weasley was in a bit of a conundrum. For the first time in his life, his need excel as a Prefect conflicted with obeying his mother’s rules.

One of his new first-year Gryffindors wasn’t human. Juniper Dwllphyrn was quietly talking to Fred and George, instead of being with the other first-years. They were probably already making plans to infiltrate the third floor corridor. Either that, or she was avoiding Ron, as he complained to whoever cared to hear (and didn’t care to hear) about how he was foiled from ‘rescuing a bewitched girl from being kidnapped by a Fae’ and couldn’t understand why even the Slytherins were upset with him.

The red envelope was probably already on its way for what Ron really did. It would definitely arrive by morning.

Upon arrival at the painting of the Fat Lady, Percy gave the password (Caput Draconis) causing Juniper to narrow her two sets of eyes.

“It’s a good thing my sisters weren’t sorted to Gryffindor,” she commented.

Percy looked confused for a moment, then looked suitably ashamed, as he remembered what races were included among the demi-humans.

The Gryffindors entered their common room, and the first-years were told which staircase led where.

As the students started breaking into their groups, Juniper removed her outer robes, freeing her wings, and flew up the stairwell to the girls’ dorms. A few moments later, she flew back down to join Fred, George and Lee where Percy suspected the three were planning the first prank of term and were already corrupting their House’s only demi-human. He was about to intervene, when she produced a device that looked like the bastard-child of a crystal ball and a telephone.

She placed the device on the table in the corner.

“Lee, I was told you like spiders” he heard her say.

The twins’ expressions changed from ‘mischievous’ to ‘excited’.

Juniper pushed some buttons, and a three foot wide by two foot high rectangle of light appeared on the adjacent wall. A female face with red hair and three sets of green eyes appeared on the ‘screen’ in front of them. The face pulled back, to reveal she was an Arachne. An identical one was next to her, placing the last of six red contact lenses into a flower-shaped container.

“Fred! George!” said one.  
“Or is it ‘Gred’ and ‘Forge’?” said the other, causing the named twins to snigger.

“Lee, allow us to introduce Charlotte and Kuroko O’Reilly,” said Fred (or was it George? Percy could never figure out which twin was which). “Kindred spirits in the art of pranking, and our soulmates. Charlotte, Kuroko, this is Lee.”

Lee raised an eyebrow. “Now I understand why you two disappear over summer. The photographs don’t do them justice.”

“Hey, Lee”  
“our eyes”  
“are up”  
“here.” They echoed.

“Just admiring the view,” Lee unashamedly replied, while Juniper laughed. “So is Boris.” He held up his tarantula.  
Percy left, to check on how the first-year boys were settling in.


	3. Chapter 3

Dragons in Hogwarts  
Chapter 3

Leo followed the rest of the first-year Slytherins down into the dungeons. “It would be quite easy for someone to get lost down here,” he idly commented.

“It’s deliberate,” replied the Prefect next to him. “The other Houses don’t like us much, and the route to the dorms is part of the defences.”

“Makes sense,” replied Leo. He gestured towards the bottom of the wall. “I would suggest getting someone with some experience to place small markers near the floor, such as a snake, to point the route out for the dorms, the Head of House, or ‘safe’ places.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“It’s not mine. Several centuries ago, a lot of organisations used to use similar methods to point out safe meeting places and suchlike.”

“We’re here.”

The other Prefect stood near a section of wall that looked like any other. “The only way into the Slytherin common room is to give the password. The password is renewed every two weeks and will be posted on our noticeboard.” She turned towards the wall. “Toujours Pur.”

The wall slid open, revealing a secret passage. There were gasps of awe, as the first-years got their first impression of the Slytherin common room.

“Oh. We’re under the lake,” Leo observed, looking at the windows dominating the room.

“Yes, we are,” replied a voice from a side door. A pale-skinned, greasy-haired man dressed in black walked into the room. “Good evening students. I am Professor Snape, your Head of House. The rules are simple…”  
Snape went through the rules about appearing united in front of the other Houses, how to resolve issues with other Slytherins, study requirements, curfews, etc.  
“… as it is now after 9pm, you should all head to your rooms. Girls are on the left; boys are on the right.”

Snape dismissed his new hatchlings and spoke privately to his Prefects and seventh-years in a nearby room. He was about to take the side door back to his office, when he heard an irate “frak!” Leo O’Reilly was standing in front of the entrance to boys’ dorms, with an annoyed look on his face.

“Five points for foul language, Mr O’Reilly. I may be unfamiliar with the word, but it was obviously some form of swearing,” Snape commented. “Now, it’s after nine, and you should be heading to bed.”

“I can’t,” He replied. Snape then noticed the young boy was trying to suppress tears. “Neither passage will let me in.” The child demonstrated the Ward-barriers activating.

Snape looked closer at the blonde. _What is going on here?_ Realisation dawned on Snape’s face, and he led the child to his office. The muggle world barely acknowledged gender dysphoria. The Magical world was much more archaic. The security Wards on the girls’ dorms were reacting to Leo’s ‘male’ mind, and the Wards on the boys’ dorms were reacting to Leo’s ‘female’ body. The extra measures were originally placed to stop students using Polyjuice or Glamours to infiltrate the other dorms for illicit activities.  
This was going to be a long night, as he tried to figure out how he was going to house his latest snake.

===//===

Snape opened the door to his office, to check up on O’Reilly before breakfast, when a flash of movement forced him to step back.

Standing in front of him was a miniature Lily Evans. The brief shock of that that he felt suddenly became secondary, when he remembered why he stepped back. The young redhead was pointing a sword towards his throat. It looked very much like the description of Godric Gryffindor’s sword.

“Sorry Professor,” she said, as she lowered the sword and stepped back. “I know it’s your office, but you should really knock before entering a room you’ve turned into sleeping quarters.”

Severus quickly composed himself and was about to chew out the mini-Lily, when he noticed there was someone on the floor, bound by what looked like thorned vines. He was glaring daggers at mini-Lily.

“What in Merlin’s name…”

Mini-Lily looked up at Snape. “Last night we found something wrong with the defences that stop boys going into the girls’ dorms and vice versa. Some …stuff… happened before I was adopted, so Professor Flitwick had to ‘fine tune’ the charms on the dorms’ entries, using a Ward Map our mother had given Violet. When we realised that Leo could have a similar issue, Violet checked the map, and saw she was alone in your office. We don’t need as much sleep as humans, so we decided to take turns keeping watch.” She glanced at the bound student. “Violet was on first watch and heard the door open. She initially thought it was one of the Prefects checking Leo was okay …until she heard him undoing his fly.”

“I see…” growled Snape.

“Don’t touch the thorns,” said Leo, as he walked into the office from the attached bathroom. “Violet likes to get ‘creative’ with what she imbues into those vines. She should be back down to release him soon.” Leo glanced over at mini-Lily. “Dorea, I’m surprised you stayed human while watching me.”

Snape watched, as the redhead grew six inches taller, the pupils in her green eyes became vertical slits, her light-smattering of freckles became small clusters of tiny scales and her hair developed pink tips.

_Metamorphmagus, like Miss Tonks in Hufflepuff?_ Snape wondered.  
Feathered wings then sprouted from her back, near her shoulders, and a bladed tail from near her hips. She developed a set of horns.

_Animagus!_ Snape realised, as he recognised the other Kobayashi sister. He had been forewarned that some of the demi-humans coming in were Dragons with the ability to take on ‘human’ forms. However, he wasn’t expecting **this** . _I thought getting a magical creature as an Animagus form was impossible._  
“I figured that, seeing as I still have nightmares about the Dursleys when I’m human, and I need to change out of my Animagus form for at least four hours a week, I may as well kill two birds with one stone, and be human while keeping watch.” Dorea tapped her sword with her tail, causing electricity to arc between it and the blade. “This still works, regardless of my form.”

_When did the Sword of Gryffindor gain that ability?_ Snape thought.

“Dorea, don’t charge up your sword unless you plan to taze someone,” said a voice from behind Snape, causing him to jump in fright and draw his wand.

“Violet Kobayashi,” drawled Snape. “Ten points from Ravenclaw for sneaking up on a teacher. However, regarding protecting O’Reilly, I’ll award thirty points to each of you for your quick thinking. I was negligent in ensuring …he… was safe before I retired for the night, so I won’t penalise either of you for violating curfew. Mr Blackburn, I will be removing two hundred points from Slytherin for your actions and will be calling the Aurors.”

“I should have neutered him before we had witnesses.” Violet muttered, eliciting a whimper from her prisoner. She snapped her fingers and the vines restraining Blackburn withdrew from around his mouth. “I’ll retract the thorns when the Aurors arrive.” She produced a sword-breaker from one of her sleeves. “Move and you’ll be singing soprano in the prison choir.”

===//===

Breakfast saw lots of gossip, trying to guess why Slytherin and Gryffindor were both in the negatives.

Most of the school had heard about Ron’s impulsive actions on the way to the boats, but only a few outside of Slytherin had some inkling that something major had happened, as they saw one of the Seventh-years sitting alone at the end of the table, with the rest of the seventh-years acting as a barrier between the younger ones. If anyone knew the details, they weren’t saying anything, although there were significant looks passing among the Slytherins. There were also a few looks and hand-signs passing between the Ravenclaw dragons.

Further speculation was made, when Professor Sprout whispered something to Azrael O’Reilly, and Lyra led him over to his brother at the Slytherin table.  
Everyone ended up distracted when the owls came.

“Sweet Merlin!” exclaimed someone. “There’s a Howler going to the Gryffindor table!”

===//===

Professor Snape opened the door to his office and glanced at the bed near the back of it. _How am I going to sort this problem out?_

He was distracted from his train of thought by a clattering noise in the common room. Opening the small side door, the first thing Snape noticed were the robes draped on one of the chairs. One set had the distinct red embellishments of a Gryffindor student.

A girl’s voice echoed from near the dorm entries. “Mr Higgs, would you say that rune is a ‘sworath’ or a ‘swarash’?”

“I have no bloody idea,” said Higgs’ distinctive voice. “It’s too worn.”

Snape quietly stalked forward and was surprised to see Higgs aiming a mechanic’s drop-light at the lintel of the boys’ dorm entryway.

“Bugger!” exclaimed the girl’s voice. Snape suddenly realised she was inside the doorway.

“What is going on here?” Snape demanded, as he stepped forward, nearly tripping over something solid. “What in Merlin’s name…” There was a neatly-stacked pile of half a dozen stone blocks. The object he had almost tripped over was a stone-mason’s rotary saw. He then noticed the blocks used to be part of the right-hand side of the door frame, which was currently braced by an oak scaffold.

There was a faint buzzing as the insect-girl, Juniper, slowly descended into Snape’s view. She had some sort of tablet in one of her hands and appeared to be making notes on it with a stylus. “The ward-scheme for the entryways has been scrubbed and rewritten so many times, the latent magic has been causing issues.” She looked over at Snape, as if just noticing him, and blinked her four eyes. “Hello Professor. The other students were concerned about the wards on the dorm entries.” She used her other two hands to readjust her hair under her headband.

Higgs looked at Juniper’s notes. “Why in the name of seven hells was this ward-scheme made so complex?”

“Probably because, somewhere around the early 1700s, the majority of the Pure-blood Slytherins were self-entitled prats, who used their influence to coerce or take advantage of young women,” Juniper explained. “These wards have been rewritten multiple times, probably to close loopholes some of the more cunning snakes had found workarounds for.” She made a few more notes on het tablet. “The wards to the boys’ dorm will be down while I source new stones. Give me ten days for the materials to arrive, and three days to redo the ward-scheme. Four if you want it in Parselscript.”

Snape was impressed.

Higgs looked over at his Head of House. “It doesn’t matter to us that Leo is different. He’s still one of us and should feel safe.”

Snape was surprised. “I didn’t realise our House had become so forward-thinking.”

“A lot changed when our parents found out Lord Salazar’s heirs were Lamiaii,” said Higgs. His face darkened. “I cannot believe Dumbledore sent the Aurors away, claiming Juniper’s sisters ‘overreacted’ and ‘misinterpreted the situation’.”

“Yes, I was there,” Snape replied. “The senile old bastard even penalised them for being out of their dorms, losing all those points I gave them. “

“By the way, Professor,” Juniper commented. “Could you and the Prefects arrange for a Staff and Prefect meeting tonight?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because my sisters plan on taking Miss Paladin out for some flying lessons.”

“Flying lessons aren’t for another fortnight, Miss Dwllphyrn.”

“I don’t mean with brooms.” Juniper flapped her wings. “She’s never had other dragons around to teach her and has only had a few basic lessons since Mum found out about her.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Also, Mr Blackburn is going to get the sudden urge for a late night run tonight.”

“Mr Blackburn doesn’t seem to be the athletic type.”

“It will be healthier than the alternative.”

“What alternative?”

“Sitting still in an open field, while an Ushishir Thunderwing, a Llamedos Thornvine, and a Hungarian Horntail teach a Sheffield Silverscale how to herd prey animals from the sky, using breath attacks.” Juniper patted the doorway. “With the wards down, the DMLE holding cells are currently the only place on Earth my sister cannot open a Gate into. If he isn’t in one of those cells by sunset, he will be going for a late-night run.”

===//===

The first Potions class with the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs proved to be interesting for Professor Snape. It was not surprising that Draco and his adopted sister Lyra had talent. Narcissa was a very good teacher to her children, as were those demi-humans that opened their home to them. That Lamia doctor, Renata Slytherin, even taught **him** some new things.

He looked across to where Azrael had set up his station. Apparently, his cousin Juniper had given him a device that was based on two recently invented muggle tools. The device ‘read’ the labels on the ingredients jars and then ‘spoke’ into his runic earpiece, aiding the blind half-Fae to gather correct ingredients, which he then carefully placed near his braille edition of his potions book. He and Lyra demonstrated the device for him earlier in the week. Juniper was still working on a tool to alert him to colour changes.

Snape dreaded to see how the Gryffindor/Slytherin class was going to be, later in the week. He suspected that Juniper was going to be the only competent Gryffindor.

His concerns were confirmed during said class. He tried some random questions to see if the Gryffindors had even touched their textbooks.

“Miss Dwllphyrn, where would I find a bezoar?”

“A bezoar is a stone-like clump of tightly-compressed hair, commonly found in a goat’s stomach,” she replied. “They neutralise most poisons. The ones that Satyrs produce will nullify most love potions, such as Amortentia.”

Snape looked up suddenly. “What was that?”

“A bezoar from a Satyr will neutralise the effects of a love potion,” Juniper replied. “It probably has something to do with being permanently …frisky… especially the females.”

“There are no female Satyrs,” sneered one of the other Gryffindors.

“Maybe not in Europe,” replied Juniper. “Aunt Renata told us that a good Potioneer gathers as much knowledge as possible about different ingredients. Some plants have different names, depending on the mineral content of the soil they grow in, such as Wolfsbane.”

“Ten points to Gryffindor,” Snape commented. “It would have been higher, but Mr Finnegan’s belief that he knows more about demi-humans than the Deputy-Director of ICEP’s daughter lost you a few points for his ignorance.”  
===//===

The various teachers who weren’t currently on patrol with the Prefects met up in the Staff lounge, to discuss the progress of their various students.

“What is your opinion on the new demi-humans?” asked Professor Sprout. “Two of them are extremely talented Herbologists. They’re almost as good as I am.”

“That would be Violet Kobayashi and Juniper Dwllphyrn,” replied McGonagall. “They’re good with plants because they’re both half-Dryad.”

“More than just plants,” commented Sinistra. “For astronomy class last night, it was both the most confusing and most enlightening night of my life. I was about to deduct points for them and the other demi-humans not bringing their telescopes, when they produced these weird devices.” She shook her head. “Dorea tapped some buttons on her device, causing stars to appear on its screen. Did you know the Muggles have giant telescopes deployed in different locations throughout space? The view Juniper showed was from an ‘orbiting telescope’ called Hubble. How long have Muggles had these things?”

“For a very long time,” replied Burbage. “During the fifty years since I last explored the Muggle world, I have become so out of date it isn’t funny. I have actually had to sign up for one of those ICEP courses that are normally taken by demi-humans from out in the middle of nowhere.”

The teachers chatted for ne next half hour, observing the ‘prejudices’ of the Slytherins were greatly reduced compared to previous years and noting that the Gryffindors seemed to have more issues with demi-humans than the Slytherins used to have with blood-status. The educational material readily available from ICEP about Muggle/Magical cultures have bridged the gap more significantly than the lame books Dumbledore had proposed for Muggle-born students to read when they first get their Hogwarts letters.

Talk did eventually return to which students were going to be top of their year levels.

“Now, we also need to discuss Josef Blackburn,” McGonagall. “He has been marked as ‘absent’ for all of his classes for three days now. Severus, if he’s sick, you should really take him to see Poppy.”

Snape looked over to the Deputy Headmistress. “Did Albus tell you about the ‘incident’ with Leo O’Reilly a few days ago?”

“He said something about Fillius needing to keep a better eye on his students and that a misunderstanding happened with Mr Blackburn,” she replied.

“Attempted rape is no ‘misunderstanding’, Minerva,” Snape commented. The teachers all gasped. “The last I had heard, Mr Blackburn decided to go for a late-night run during the Prefects’ meeting. He might be taking a few days to assess his standing with the rest of my House. Maybe he turned himself into the DMLE. Leo’s cousins and brother were, understandably, upset with what happened, as was Miss Gringott.”

A look of concern appeared on McGonagall’s face. “We should check with Madam Bones. I would hate to have to form a search-party for a missing student, especially if he’s already in a known location.”

Snape kept his mouth shut and his Occulmency shields up. He already knew Blackburn was stupid enough to call Violet’s bluff. Pack-hunting was _definitely_ not mentioned in any of the behaviours documented for Dragons. He honestly hoped it was unique only to the ones that could become humanoid.

===//===

Halloween saw many classes change from theory to basic practical lessons. Professor Flitwick looked up at the first-year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws and saw they weren’t sitting in their usual places. He noticed certain Ravenclaws had spread out to be near specific students. Apparently, they had learned from the Slytherins which students were having difficulties in Potions and in Transfiguration and had positioned themselves accordingly.

“For today’s lesson,” Flitwick announced, “we will be attempting the Levitation Charm.” Several feathers appeared in front of the students.

He demonstrated the swish-and-flick motion of his wand and chanted “Wingardium Leviosa.” The feather lifted off his table, to the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ of a few students.

“Oh! It’s the tractoring spell Mum used to throw that B52 at that Balrog,” Violet commented.

“Oh yeah, you’re right,” agreed Dorea. “It makes sense that we’d need to start off with something small and light.”

Unsurprisingly, the Ravenclaws performed the spell within the first few tries, starting with the Dragons. Juniper was the first Gryffindor to achieve the spell, slightly after Miss Granger and slightly before Mr Black.

There was a sharp BANG, an Mr Finnegan’s feather exploded.

His attention was drawn up to Dorea Kobayashi, sitting next to Mr Longbottom. She was helping him with the wand movements and the poor boy was getting red-faced from the physical contact. He also kept half an eye on the potential confrontation between Weasley and Granger, as she tried to correct his pronunciation.

“Oh my goddess!” Dorea exclaimed. “It’s no wonder you’re finding this difficult. Doesn’t your Gran realise that forcing your magic through this wand will eventually cause it to break?”

“What!?” he asked, with a distraught look on his face.

“You can only use an inherited wand under two conditions,” she replied. “The original owner has to either willingly gift it to you, or they have to be dead. Right now, the wand doesn’t ‘understand’ why someone not its master is using it. It is resisting what it thinks is a wand-thief.” She handed him her wand. “Try the spell again with my wand.”

Longbottom’s face went redder with Dorea’s touch, but he tried again. The feather rose straight away.

Dorea raised her hand, to get her Professor’s attention. Flitwick already knew what she was going to ask.  
“Yes, Miss Kobayashi, I’ll talk to Professor McGonagall,” he replied to the implied question.

===//===

Dorea and Hedwig ran down the corridor, dodging other students, trying to catch up with Hermione. She was surprisingly agile for someone who wasn’t into physical activity. 

Weasley had mocked her for attempting to help him, and she ran away, crying.

They eventually caught up with her at the second-floor girls’ toilets and skipped the next few classes comforting their friend. Having soft feathers has its advantages.

It wasn’t until their stomachs started grumbling that they realised how long they were sitting on the bench by the sinks.

“I don’t think the Halloween feast has finished yet,” said Dorea, as the girls stood up. “If it is, I know the way to the kitch- **What the hell is that smell?** ”

===//===

Head-cracker stalked through the straight-walled cavern, dragging his club behind him. He was still feeling a bit groggy, after waking up in this strange place. The smell of water made him realise his throat was dry. The nearby sound of squishies also reminded him he was hungry.

There was one of those things the squishies make from clubs to block things with. It was blocking the way to the water and he could smell many …female… squishies behind it. He grinned to himself. He could have some fun with at least one of them before he ate them. The sounds ‘What the hell is that smell?’ came from the other side. Maybe they were expecting another squishy.

He smashed down the flimsy barrier, causing the expected terrified scream from one of the squishies. All was as expected, until he ducked into the smaller cave. There was one oomie-squishy, who had immediately backed away, trying to make herself smaller. On his not-club side was one of those feather-squishies. She stood defensively in front of the oomie-squishie. He remembered from experience the claws on their feet were sharp. The one on his club-side looked like an oomie-squishy, but also had a set of wings, like the feather-squishy. She growled. He felt a shiver of fear.

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

The growly one changed shape and stalked towards him. Sparks started arcing between her horns. He backed up at the semi-familiar shape and raised his club. Club smashes solved most problems.

CRACK!

“ARGH!” His club shattered, as it was struck by lightning. He dropped its remains. Now there was a problem. Can’t club smash with no club. Something was nagging at the back of his tiny brain, while backing away from the feathered, horned, winged creature. As he backed into the tunnel, there were more growls.

These shapes, he recognised! They were Dragons! Even the one with thorny vines waving around her like snakes. _Oh… the feathered creature is a different **type** of Dragon! _ He was in a territory belonging to more than many Dragons!

…Uh oh!...

===//===

The general stench of the corridor worsened, as the Troll voided its bowels and bladder in terror. Four Dragons, even if they were only the size of deer-hounds, were too much for its tiny brain to handle.

“What is going on here!?” demanded McGonagall, as she rounded the corner to see the four Dragons transforming back to their ‘human’ shapes. There was the distinct smell of ozone in the air.

“Hedwig, Hermione, it’s safe to come out now,” said Fellblade. “Just block your nose. This smegging thing stinks.” She looked back towards the witch. “Good evening, Professor McGonagall. Do you want the long version or the short version?”

“Short will do, Miss Gringott,” she replied.

“Ron was a prat during charms,” Fellblade explained. “Hermione needed some alone time. We spooked the Troll. No, we are not going to eat it.”


	4. Chapter 4

Dragons in Hogwarts  
Chapter 4

Lavender had been looking at that picture frame for weeks, and something had been nagging at the back of her mind. The photo showed Juniper, Violet, Dorea and a young Dryad, with similar features to both Juniper and Violet.

From snippets of conversations she and the Patil twins overheard, they had figured out that, apart from Dorea, who was magically adopted, Violet, Juniper and their youngest sister, Venus (who Lavender assumed was the young Dryad in the photo) were actually all half-sisters, with the adult Dryad she occasionally saw in Diagon Alley as the ‘common’ parent.

Just like any other wizarding photograph, the image was a small twenty second loop. This one showed the four sisters waving, in front of a rose garden at dusk, with the garden lights just starting to flicker on. She knew that their family mansion was ‘over that way, somewhere, and can only be accessed by authorised people’ when asked. Many ancient families’ mansions were unplottable, with wards keyed to family and/or friends.

It was only now that she was realising what she was finding ‘wrong’ with the picture:

There were two suns in the background.

_How in Merlin’s name could a Muggle issue of double-exposure occur in a wizarding photograph?_ Lavender thought. She wondered if she should point it out to her dorm-mate.

===//===

Dumbledore chuckled quietly to himself, as he sat down to lunch. He absorbed the cheerful atmosphere surrounding the school. The Quidditch season was about to start soon, and most of the students were getting excited about try-outs, making banners, etc.

The first years were also excited, but for their first flying lessons today. He frowned internally, as he remembered who was assisting Rolanda teach the students. He couldn’t object openly about her, as the Daily Prophet had announced that ICEP had offered to replace the school’s outdated brooms. Rolanda had already postponed the lessons, when one of the brooms spontaneously combusted, while setting them up for the Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff lesson. He decided to distract himself, by asking about an unfamiliar sport he heard mentioned by some of the non-Purebloods.

He had a ‘passing acquaintance’ with soccer, rugby and cricket. He didn’t know much about them, beyond what the Muggle-born students and a few half-bloods spoke about them. He was also reasonably familiar with wizard sports, like Quadpot. He turned his head towards Professor Hooch, as she was the only teacher who seemed to know about different sports.

“Rolanda, what is this ‘flitter ball’ those students are talking about?” he asked.

Professor Hooch nearly choked on her morning coffee. _Does he know I’ve been sneaking out to watch games?_ “Flitterball is one of the demi-human sports. The Muggles call it ‘Fairy Football’ because it is commonly played by fairies, pixies, and suchlike. It looks like Quidditch but modified for flying creatures.”

_Fairies play sports?_ Dumbledore thought. _Fairies are supposed to flit around the garden, tending flowers and just being ‘tinkly’._

“I have also heard that some of the children in Greater London adapted some of the rules for Flitterball to their own soccer games,” Hooch gestured towards the Ravenclaw table. “Those four are among the regular players in Surrey and London, along with Juniper and a pair of Raven-psyrens. The Greater London sporting clubs are already working together to formalise the rules for how many flyers are allowed per team.”

“Look! Neville’s got a new wand!” exclaimed a voice, from the Gryffindor table.

Dumbledore turned to face McGonagall. “Minerva, when did you take Mr Longbottom to purchase a wand?"

“I didn’t,” she replied. “I had just been given permission by Augusta to get young Neville his own wand. Apparently, young Juniper wrote to her, explaining about how insisting he use young Frank’s wand risked causing it to break. Anyway, I had just finished speaking with Augusta, when Miss Karitoriki came to see me.”

_How did **she** get past the wards? _ Dumbledore wondered. _Including that damn Dragon, and the Snow Pixie, that now makes three. Four if what Severus said was true about the Dragon’s kid, Violet, being able to make magic portals …although, that would explain how her mother used to be able to leave those prank ‘school announcements’ in my office._

“She came to inform Severus and myself about poor young Mr Blackburn. The poor lad died alone, huddled in a ditch, several miles north of here, in naught but his boxers. Anyway, she offered to escort young Neville to Ollivander’s for me.”

“You let a total stranger take the Longbottom Heir?” demanded Dumbledore. “Anything could have happened to him!”

“He was perfectly safe with her,” commented McGonagall. “Only an idiot would attack a Dullahan.” Her expression softened slightly. “Miss Karitoriki has already been such a good influence on young Sirius. In the short time they have been together, he has matured immensely. He is no longer that impulsive teenager we knew.” She indicated back towards the Gryffindor table, where students from various Houses were looking at Neville’s new wand. “Young Neville is finally fitting in with his schoolmates. If young Dorea hadn’t found out about why he was having so much trouble with his spells, poor Neville probably would have gone through his whole life thinking he was useless.”

_This isn’t good,_ thought Dumbledore. _Neville is supposed to be using his father’s wand. With Dorea Potter not showing up, I need everyone to think he’s barely above a squib, so they’ll shun him, and my plans can still go forward. He was supposed to be ever so grateful, when I got him a better wand._

===//===

“Good afternoon, students!” Rolanda Hooch addressed the group in front of her. “You all know me as your Health and Physical Education teacher, even if most of you seem to have notes from your parents, excusing you from actively participating. I am also your Flight instructor.” She then indicated to the woman beside her. She was obviously Violet’s mother, and she had two Hornet-pixies sitting on her shoulders. “Assisting me are Mizuchi Kobayashi, and her associates, Llif-Gadwyn and Yuki.”

“Hi Mum!” “Hi Aunt Mizuchi!” called most of the demi-humans.

“In previous years, I used to have to divide you between two classes,” Hooch continued. “This year we have new brooms, as our old ones were woefully substandard.”

“What the hell are Atrax fours?” whined Ron Weasley. “Couldn’t we have gotten something from Nimbus, Cleansweep or Comet?”

“They are training brooms, not performance brooms,” Mizuchi commented. “They cannot go much faster than a jogging pace and have a maximum ceiling of twenty feet. The mark four can be flown by squibs, so that means that ‘superior’ witches and wizards like you,” the Hornet-pixies made noises that the students suspect is laughter, “should be able to get basic flight down within two lessons.”

“Everyone stand beside a broom,” Hooch stated. The students moved where indicated.

“Reach out your right hand,” said Mizuchi, “and say ‘Up’ with a firm voice.”

“Very good,” said Hooch. She then demonstrated the correct way to mount their brooms. She and her three assistants then spent the next few minutes correcting the children’s grips.

The students were then led through some basic manoeuvres.

“This is boring,” complained a few Gryffindors.

“Ever think that this is the first time using a broom, for some people?” Juniper commented. “Brooms are cleaning equipment in non-magical households. If this was designed by who I think…” She stood up on top of her broom. “Ha! I was right! There’s a low-level inertial dampener woven into this.”

“{Juniper! Don’t surf with the training brooms!}” Llif-Gadwyn called out. The humans only heard a series of buzzes, tinkles and whistles, but those with line of sight recognised the body-language of a parent scolding a child.

“Sorry Mum! I just couldn’t resist testing this out!” Juniper called back.

“Did you forget your school robes impede your wings!?” Mizuchi called out. “Five points from Gryffindor, because we now have to include a ‘don’t surf on the brooms’ rule during practice!”

The rest of the afternoon proceeded without incident. 

===//===

Professor McGonagall looked wistfully out of her window. It was one of the few ‘spare’ times the teams weren’t practicing for games, and there were several shapes flying around the Quidditch pitch. Only a few of them were on brooms. Some of them appeared to be giving flying lessons.

Most of the students had at least got up to ‘acceptable’ levels or better for their brooms, with one or two exceptions, that were getting remedial lessons from Llif-Gadwyn and Yuki, two of the Hornet-pixies usually seen around the Kobayashi family. It also looked like Fred and George Weasley were assisting. The boys might be more skilled at pranking than the Marauders, but it was ‘balanced out’ by them also providing help to those that needed it, regardless of what House they were in.

A crazy aerial manoeuvre had her wishing that Dorea had been sorted into Gryffindor. Moves like that would have made her an amazing Seeker, with or without a broom.

McGonagall spotted a familiar black-clad shape sitting in the stands. If asked, he would probably claim he was checking up on young Mr Goyle, but she was also starting to suspect Severus might know Dorea’s ‘secret’, because Dorea was ‘mini-Lily Evans’. She could never disguise that part of her. Her current guardians raised her too well. _I will have to make some quiet enquiries and hope that Albus doesn’t catch wind of what was going on._ Part of her was enjoying his frustration at ‘not finding the missing Potter child’ even with all the clues around him. Albus was not nearly as clever as he thought he was.

Mizuchi was right. Relying too much on your magic reduces your ability to use logic.

===//===

The weeks went on. Ron was still a prat but was improving, even if all he seemed to think about was chess and quidditch.

Ravenclaws were going into ‘study mode’ and Gryffindors were obsessing over Quidditch.

There was a study-session happening in the library. Actually, there were several. Wherever there was space for two or more students, small clusters had formed. Most of them were ‘mixed’ groups from two or more Houses, due to access restrictions on the common rooms, but there were also a few of the more studious Gryffindors there to escape the general rowdiness of their House.

For Hermione’s group, they were mildly surprised to see Hagrid pulling books off the nearby shelves at (apparently) random. The noise of books falling to the floor, as he tried to carry too many, caused Madam Pince to shoo him away.

===//===

Dumbledore was mildly annoyed. Nobody had taken the bait about the ‘forbidden’ corridor, not even the Gryffindors. No one had taken any hints about the stone, either.

He quietly slipped into the room the mirror was stored in, as he heard the approach of the Ravenclaw demi-humans.

“Do you think anyone else has attempted the corridor?” Dorea asked.

“I doubt it,” replied Violet. “After Fred and George found out that a simple unlocking charm could get you past that locked door, they and Juniper placed a Perception Filter on the door, so that no one under eighteen could see it.”

_They what?_ Dumbledore thought.

“Good thing we’re immune to those, because of the ‘Fairy Door’ to your mothers’ house,” Fellblade responded. “Otherwise Fluffy couldn’t get his tummy rubs off us.”

_There’s a faerie door in Surrey?_ Dumbledore silently fumed. _No wonder I can’t find Potter!_

“It’s not like there’s anything important behind all of those ‘tests’ that were set up,” Violet commented. “The chess set wasn’t even a challenge. It was just bog-standard 2D chess. I suppose the Potions test might be a challenge for someone who didn’t grow up like we did.”

_**Might** be a challenge? _

“At least Fluffy appreciated the ten minutes of tummy rubs we gave him, while you explored by yourself,” said Dorea.

_Ten minutes? There and back? At least Longbottom will take longer, once I remove that whatever-it-is from the door, and lure… tempt him into the tests._

===//===

“Hagrid?” asked a voice from outside the front door, that he recognised as Violet.

“Why can we smell a dragon egg?” continued Georgie from the back door.

“Umm…” Hagrid hesitated. “P’rhaps the four o’ yeh ‘ad better come in.” Hagrid knew enough about pack-hunters to know the other two would have staked-out the windows.

The four dragons entered the hut via the front door, as Hagrid let them inside. They were the only ‘complications’ in his understanding of dragons. Nothing mentioned dragons being pack-hunters, but these four were. He’d seen them hunt Acromantulas in the woods these past few months. Hedwig and Juniper even participated, even though they only acted as forward scouts, and weren’t dragons.

Only one book, an old storybook from Asia, mentioned that dragons had magic and could disguise themselves as humans. Looking at them, only Georgie looked fully-human. Maybe some of them were better at it than others. He tried to make conversation, to hopefully distract what might be an instinctive reaction to a ‘foreign’ dragon in ‘their territory’.

“How did you get a Norwegian Ridgeback egg?” asked Violet.

“Won it off a guy down the pub,” Hagrid at least looked embarrassed, as he replied.

“Now we’re being traded like we’re dodgy video players,” grumbled Fellblade.

“It’s hatching,” whispered Dorea. “I can see the mana build-up.”

Hagrid rushed over to the egg and, using blacksmith’s tongs, carefully placed the egg on his table, in a ‘nest’ of rags he’d prepared earlier.

After a few scraping noises, and the egg rocking for a while, it split open. The hatchling flopped out of the egg. Its spikes and overlarge wings reminded Dorea of a spiky umbrella. It opened its orange eyes and sneezed, ejecting a few sparks into Hagrid’s beard.

“Isn’t he beautiful?” cooed Hagrid. “I think I’ll call him Norbert.” He reached out his hand, only for ‘Norbert’ to snap at him and give a squeaky snarl. “Bless him! He knows his Mummy!”

“Uh, Hagrid, **she** isn’t too sure about you adopting her if you can’t even tell she’s a girl,” commented Violet.

Hagrid’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “I’m sorry little girl,” he cooed at the hatchling. He looked at the others. “Does she already have a name?”

There was a series of small squeaks from the hatchling, causing Fellblade to giggle, as she was the only one of the four older dragons to actually hatch from an egg.

“{You cannot call yourself ‘Empress Ragnarök, Destroyer of Worlds’}” she growled back and pointed to Violet and Juniper. “{That title is already taken by their mother.}”  
More squeaks.

“{Yes, yes, you’re a mighty Norwegian Ridgeback.} She doesn’t recognise us as dragons, because we look like humans to her.” Fellblade looked at Hagrid for that last part.

More squeaks. The four girls gasped, and Violet drew her arms over her chest.

“Norberta…” admonished Hagrid. “I don’t know what you just said, but it was obviously rude.”

Little blue runes surrounded the hatchling, and a humanoid figure that could be mistaken for a two-year-old appeared. She had no wings, tail, or horns, but she did have a pouty face “Heyyy,” she whined, not noticing Georgie’s smirk, due to her being behind her. 

=I thought only my parents knew that one= signalled Violet.

=I’m a quick study= Georgie signalled back.

“Did anyone else notice she spoke English?” Dorea asked.

Norberta narrowed her orange eyes at Dorea. “Change me back, not-dragon.”

“Don’t look at me,” Dorea replied. “I only know how to transform myself.”

“Maybe your magic changed you, so you can get better hugs off your Mummy,” said Georgie.

Hagrid gave Georgie a funny look, but still took the cue to scoop his ‘daughter’ up and into a hug.

“Mmm,” murmured Norberta. “Hugs are nice.” She fell asleep.

“Care to explain, Georgie?” asked Hagrid.

“It’ll wear off,” she replied. “Think of it as ‘priming the pump’. Her natural magic will recognise that she has that form as an option. Plus, it will keep the Ministry off you. Raising dragons is illegal in Britain, but there’s nothing illegal about ‘filthy half-breeds’ adopting other ‘filthy half-breeds’.”

“Take her to ICEP’s London office,” said Violet. “Ask for my Mother or my Mum, either of them are your best bet at hiding the fact you won her in a card game. One way or another, **that** is still illegal.”

===//===

It was a fortnight later, while Violet was fetching a kill, to teach Norberta the first stage of being a hunter, when the centaurs came. She looked up from the cat-sized Acromantula and focussed on the arrows pointing at her. “{What do you want, Mister Ed?}”

“We know you speak English, monster,” growled the ‘leader’ of the party.

“Monster?”

“You are but a parody of the sacred Dryads.”

“You’re obviously missing two important pieces of information. One, I am the child of a Dryad Queen and a Frost Dragon.” The centaurs sidled away from their leader. “Two, we have a rule to never hunt alone in the forest.”

A red dot appeared on the chests of four of the aggressors, and some nearby trees ‘reached’ to grab two more. The dots moved up to sit between their eyes …and stayed there.  
Before things could escalate further, there was a crackling sound from nearby. _“Juniper!”_ Dorea’s voice called from the weird patch of shadow. _“Bring your med-kit! I’ve got an injured unicorn over here!”_

Juniper deactivated her optical camouflage, re-holstered three of her weapons, and grasped a device near her shoulder. “Wilco, Dorea. Code nine alpha confirmed.” She looked over at Violet. “Get Hagrid. If something is going after unicorns, it might try for dragons next. You lot can defend yourself. All Norberta can use is harsh words and a few sparks. She can’t even fly yet.”

While the centaurs were distracted by Juniper taking to the sky, Violet opened a Gate behind her, leading to the edge of the forest, and ‘fell’ into it.  
“Show-off!” Juniper scoffed, as she headed towards the general direction Dorea and Hedwig were meant to be.

===//===

A hooded figure slunk into Quirrell’s office, dragging its leg. It had barely gotten away from the filthy half-breed redhead with the lightning scar on its forehead. If she hadn’t been more concerned with the unicorn, the host-body would probably be dead.

“It was wielding the Sword of Gryffindor, Master.”

“Nonsense! Only the heirs of Gryffindor can wield that weapon, and not only is she a filthy half-breed, but she’s a Ravenclaw!” He sent pain into his host-body.

“F-forgive me, Master. Maybe the sword only looks like the legendary weapon.”

“I’m more worried about the bug-girl from outer-space.” The weapons she had on her might have looked different to the ones in the Flash Gordon comic he stole from Rogers all those years ago, but he still knew a ray-gun when he saw it. “Fix your leg. With those things now watching the unicorns, we need to go for the stone a lot sooner than planned.”

===//===

Exams were over. Slytherin won the Quidditch Cup, and everyone was enjoying the end of year feast. This year, Ravenclaw won the House Cup, due to the bonus points Fillius awarded Black, Granger, Gringott and both Kobayashi sisters, for Acing their exams. Blue flags decorated the Hall.

Dumbledore was pleased that Weasley, Finnegan, Thomas and Longbottom had finally taken the bait last night and had rushed to ‘stop Snape stealing the treasure.’ However, he was mildly annoyed that the Kobayashi sisters happened to, once again, be treating ‘Fluffy’ like he was some puppy they found in a park.

What was worse, they had ignored that Quirrell had gone past the Cerberus before they had arrived.

_**(FLASHBACK)**_

_Dumbledore opened the secret passage, expecting to see Riddle’s agent dithering at the Mirror, only to see a strange cylinder, covered in glowing runes and lights, on the floor and a sight that would have given him nightmares, if he wasn’t a master of Occlumency._

_Quirinus Quirrell was, somehow, inside the Mirror, silently banging against the glass and screaming to be let out._

_Dumbledore shuddered slightly at the sight and reached down towards the cylinder. His hand brushed against a cluster of lights, and the end flowered open, releasing a cloud of black smoke, which rushed out of one of the room’s windows._

_**(End Flashback)** _

Dumbledore looked at all the smiling faces at the end of year feast. Various snippets of holiday plans could be heard amongst the general chatter. He chuckled at the shenanigans of Dwllphyrn at the Gryffindor table, as she and the Weasley twins tried to teach the younger Weasley how to juggle. The Hornet-girl had half a dozen or so brightly-coloured rocks randomly moving between her four hands.

He was momentarily distracted from the fun, by Severus whispering in his ear. “I have no idea what that device was, but the runes were etched in its casing were so the technology inside it would work inside all of this magic.”

“I cannot remove Quirrell from the Mirror,” Dumbledore whispered back. “The magic placed on it is unfamiliar to me.”

“Yes… unfortunate.” _Dumbledore, you old fool, don’t you recognise Faerie Magic? There are three part-Fae enrolled here. Actually… does Juniper count as ‘part’, when she’s half-pixie, half-dryad?_ “You do realise that one of the rocks your Gryffindors are playing with is Flamel’s stone.”

“Yes, yes, children will play with the strangest- What did you say!?”

===//===

At the Ravenclaw table, three dragons were communicating with Pack-sign between themselves and the Hufflepuff table. Lyra looked between them, sighed and turned back to Azrael. “They’re at it again, Az. I know for a fact Violet has modified nanobots in her, and she still insists on using those primitive signals, instead of just upgrading her ‘Pack’ to use the Encrypted Cyberiat Network.”

“Can you understand her signals?” he asked.

“No,” she replied.

“Then she doesn’t need to use the ECN.” Azrael responded.

“Fine,” Lyra pouted. “I’ll figure it out eventually. I still can’t believe Juniper trapped one of the teachers inside of a magic mirror, just so she could see if Ghost Traps work on Wraiths.”

“I just hope nobody pushes any buttons on it, before we can contact Dr Spengler in New York.”

===//===

Platform 9 ¾ was crowded with families greeting their children. There were many happy faces, as sibling who hadn’t seen each other since Easter (or even Christmas, for the OWL and NEWT students) hugged each other.

Many ‘Light’ families, and one or two ‘Dark’ ones, scowled at the six-foot redhead surrounded by a gaggle of children. The ones that weren’t were the realists who had read through their family grimoires and realised that the only difference between shameful ‘half-breed’ status and treasured ‘creature inheritance’ status was time.

“Theodore, Draco, Hermione, Daphne,” said the redhead. “I will need to check with your parents, before I let you explore my library. Vincent, Gregory, Dudley, you will need written consent from your parents if you still want to go on that camping trip with the UNIT soldiers’ kids. Tracy, Hannah, Susan and Neville, the same rule applies for your joining Fern, Reg and the others for their camping trip. Those of you who do not wish to be stuck at home for summer are welcome to join one of our three groups, regardless of how old you are. Mr Higgs, Miss Tonks, if you still want to be Aurors, I recommend speaking with Sergeant Benton at UNIT HQ in London to learn some Muggle fighting techniques. Now, go find your parents, everybody!”

**===//=== end of year one ===//===**


	5. Chapter 5

Dragons in Hogwarts  
Chapter 5

**Knockturn Alley**

“Okay Venus, you can button your shirt back up,” the Herbologist placed her stethoscope back in its tray and wrote down some notes. “Your respiratory systems are in excellent shape, as are your photosynthetic ones. Your ‘skeletal’ structure is also developing correctly, but the wood density on your arms and legs means that, apart from an hour or so here and there, you’re still going to have to rely on your construct for mobility most of the time.”

“So, no soccer any time soon,” Venus grumbled, as she lowered herself off the examination bench and onto her chair.

“It’s because of me, isn’t it?” asked Regulus. “It’s because she’s half-human.”

“Dad,” Venus replied. “There is no ‘half-human’ for Dryads.”

“Venus is correct Mr Black,” said the Herbologist. “The offspring of a human and a Dryad is always a Dryad. Violet and Juniper are the only half-dryads in existence, and that’s only because they have two mothers each, each with co-dominant genes.” She raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I do keep up with Muggle medical journals. Don't look so surprised. Anyway, Dryads, Aralunes and other plant-based demi-humans, with the exception of Ents, have similar issues. Their ‘skeletons’ are less dense than ours, they generally need constructs or artificial aids to compensate. Venus’ limbs will strengthen as she gets older, but she’ll still need her ‘chair’ for the foreseeable future.”

“But mother doesn’t need constructs,” pouted Venus.

“Nobody told her?” asked the Herbologist.

“Sweetie,” Regulus squatted down to his daughter’s eye-level. “Your mother _does_ use a Dryad construct, it’s just differently-shaped to yours. Fern’s mobility construct is inside her. There was a bad magical explosion when she was a little younger than you. Llif-Gadwyn grafted it to your mother’s ‘skeletal’ and nervous systems to save her life. She also has bonded polycarbide mesh woven through her arms and legs.”

“Smegging hell! My mother is a cyborg! …well, the Dryad-version of one…” realisation dawned on Venus’ face. “That explains why she is strong enough to physically lift Mum.”

===//===

**Location unknown**

The wraith drifted back to its ‘safe’ place.

_Allowing half-breeds to attend Hogwarts was one thing,_ it thought, _but Dumbledore must be going senile faster than anticipated if a space-alien has managed to infiltrate the school! And what magic did she use to trap Quirrell in that damn mirror?_

The device that trapped it, until that fool Dumbledore released it, had to be some form of advanced alien technology. 

_I need to regain a body fast,_ it thought. _One that cannot trap my wraith-self again! Then I need to gather more subordinates. I cannot have space-aliens taking over **my** planet. It is **mine** to rule! _

===//===

**London, ICEP branch office**

Severus idly flicked through a magazine while seated in a surprisingly comfortable chair. The staff were more accommodating than he thought they’d be, given that he hadn’t made prior arrangements to meet with Director Kobayashi.

He looked up at the sound of the nearby office door opening, and saw a pale, blue-eyed, blonde woman being led out of the office by the redhead he remembered from the 70s who was so similar, yet so different, to Lily. She was also one of the few people who spoke out against the Marauders’ bullying.

“Ah, Severus. This is a wonderful coincidence,” Mizuchi greeted. “Cass, this is Severus Snape. He’s the potions master at Hogwarts and Leo’s Head of House. Severus, this is Cassiopeia O’Reilly. She’s Leo’s mother.”

Cassiopeia gave Mizuchi a mock glare, and playfully smacked her in the arm. “’Coincidence’ my FTL reactor!” She looked towards Severus. “This violation of time and space I call a sister-in-law came to fetch me the moment you stepped through the doors to the main foyer. Anyway, what brings you to our little neck of the woods?”

“Originally, I wanted to talk with Mizuchi about her daughters, specifically Dorea,” replied Severus. “However, I’m guessing she figured out my intentions and called you in so I can also talk about Leo and Azrael.”

Mizuchi’s gestured to enter the office, and Severus sat down on one of the indicated lounge-chairs in the corner. “Firstly, I am surprised the more …traditional… members of my House are so accepting of the demi-human members of your family.”

“They’re all demi-human,” said Cass. “…well, except for Dorea... Narcissa Black has been exceptional at helping remove the ignorance that has affected many of the families in this country.”

“Leo is a demi-human?” Snape commented. “I could have sworn sh- he was human.”

Mizuchi smirked. “It’s hard using the right descriptors isn’t it? Leo dresses like he does to try and hide that he’s biologically female. Cassiopeia’s race is one of the ‘purely female’ races which, unfortunately for Leo, means that his body doesn’t match his mind.” She looked towards Cass. “Don’t give me that look. Your subspecies might be able to change shape, but you’re still a Navis-meam.”

Severus raised an eyebrow. I thought a Navis-meam was bound to their physical structure _…wait! They can have offspring!_

“From the look on your face, you’re only familiar with the story-book version of what I am,” Cassiopeia commented. “My ‘actual self’ as you would term it, is idling in a field next to the family mansion. This,” she gestured to herself, “is a combination of various technologies, biosynthetic and techno-organic components, and a repurposed Reconnaissance Probe Module, to keep both ‘selves’ linked together. As an unexpected result, I can have children.”

“As for Dorea,” Mizuchi smirked. “If Dumbles ever figures out who her birth-parents are, he can issue a challenge to my adopting her at the court offices the paperwork is filed.”  
“Where is that?” Severus asked. “America, Canada or Japan? I know you have family in those countries, but he could still use his ICW connections.”

“The adoption needed to be recognised more than internationally,” Cassiopeia tried to suppress a laugh. “Mizuchi submitted the paperwork to the Shadow Proclamation courthouse offices at Alpha Centauri.”

For the first time in ages, Severus was rolling on the floor with laughter. 

Severus then spent the next few hours discussing Dorea’s and the young demi-humans’ academic and social interactions.

===//===

**London, near Kings Cross Station**

Tom walked along, stretching his new legs. It had only been a few days since Abraxas had resurrected him from the diary and an Imperiused squib, mudblood or muggle (he didn’t care which) and even though it was slightly annoying to be in the body of an almost-eleven-year-old, it did have its advantages. Nobody really notices children.

He had been warned that there had been changes since the ‘40s and ‘50s, and he had originally thought Abraxas’ statements of London being overrun with Muggles and half-breeds was an over-exaggeration, until this morning. Tom had nearly gasped in shock when he saw centaurs in Charing Cross.

Currently, he was walking towards Kings Cross station, tailing an olive-skinned girl wearing a dark green silk dress and olive-green dragon-scale cloak. He dodged past a woman with canine features ( _Kobold,_ he absently thought) and stared in awe at the illuminated arrivals/departures sign near the main entrance. He already knew about Platform 9 ¾, but there were apparently also Platforms 3 ¼ and 6 ½.

“It makes sense,” he whispered to himself. “There has to be magical communities other than Hogsmeade and Diagon.” He glanced around, trying to reacquire the girl he was following, when he spotted her joining a group of three other pre-teens: a harpy with black-tipped white feathers, a girl with red and pink angel wings, and a …dryad?... with dragon wings.

He had only ever seen pictures of harpies in books and had no idea what the other two were. The restructuring of the Statute of Secrecy meant that many magical creatures have come out of hiding. There were bound to be unknown ones around.

The girls were obviously close, and once the hugs were over, he saw them wave to another group. There were two more pre-teen girls, one of them with insect-like features, accompanied by a young woman. They were carrying grocery bags.

“Hey, Chorogons!” called out the insect girl, as she waved one of her four arms. “We’ve got snacks from Trap Street for the mage-lings to try!”

Tom had never seen one of these creatures and, from the whispers and curious looks on the passers-by, it seemed like many others were also unfamiliar with her species.

One particularly dishevelled individual was staring wide-eyed at her, and muttering about Bug-eyed Monsters from outer-space.

_Space aliens! How ridiculous!_ Tom inwardly scoffed.

“Hello Fellblade,” greeted the woman.

“Good morning, Miss Pleaides,” replied the girl he had followed.

“Fellblade, how often do I have to remind you to call me Shizu?” asked Pleaides.

The bug-girl giggled. “Fellblade is just nervous around her potential mother-in- Ow! Violet!” The winged-dryad, Violet, had swatted her arm.

Pleaides shook her head, causing Tom to sneer at the reminder of how parents indulged weakness in their offspring.

Violet and Fellblade peeked into the bags. “Anything in here from that nice Arcturian place?” asked Fellblade.

“Of course,” replied the bug-girl. “We also swung by the Ryzan shops, but we had to make sure the bulk of what we bought is edible to humans.”

Ms Pleaides looked over at the signboard. “It looks like the next train to Surrey is departing soon. Violet, Juniper, Dorea, you know what your little sister is like with crowds, so Reg is going to take her to visit her great grandfather. They’ll join you back home later.” She hugged each of the girls. “I have to meet Higgs and Tonks outside, and take them to UNIT HQ, so I’ll meet you back home tonight.” She waved goodbye and left for the outside street.

Tom followed the girls onto the platform. In front of him were three examples of magical creatures he knew nothing about, and he hated not knowing. He whistled quietly, as he looked at the streamlined, almost snake-like, train arriving. It was nothing like the chunky steam engines he was used to. _Muggles have advanced in leaps and bounds in the past few decades,_ he thought. _Maybe they aren’t complete wastes of space._

After way too long eavesdropping on what seemed to be’ boring girl talk’ about boys …and strangely, girls… he tuned out, and nearly missed them leaving the train. He followed them into a large park. It had a botanic garden in one area, several sports fields and a public library.

“Violet!” called out a number of voices.

Tom quickly dived into a nearby clump of bushes, as he spotted several Hogwarts students of varying ages rushing over to meet the girls he was following. He recognised some of them, although not specifically, more like family resemblances. The Greengrass eyes, the Longbottom chin, the Dagworth hair, and so on.

“You do know that you need an anorak, a pair of binoculars and a dodgy camera if you want to spy on girls from the bushes,” whispered a girl’s voice, startling Tom. He spun around and blushed as he stood face-to-chest with the voice’s owner. The second thing he noticed, once his eyes stopped focusing on her curves, were the intertwined rings hanging from the chain around the girl’s neck.

He recognised them from the diaries he stol- **reclaimed** from within the Chamber. Both rings were shaped as serpents, one of silver with emerald eyes, the other of a single magically-shaped emerald with silver eyes. **This girl had the Slytherin heirship and lordship rings!** The _actual_ ones, not the Gaunt cadet-branch ring his family had jealously guarded for generations, as they thought the originals to be lost.

He stood back slightly. In front of him was a curvy redhead wearing an emerald-green skirt and light green shirt that barely contained her D-cup chest. She was wearing yellow-tinted wraparound glasses that seemed to make her green eyes look like they had slitted pupils.

_Wait… those are slitted pupils,_ Tom realised he was looking at a demi-human, as he noted pointed ears and two small horns protruding from her long hair. _Why would a filthy half-breed have Salazar’s rings!?_

He looked down on instinct, as his hidden wand snagged on his sleeve, and saw the serpent’s tail coming out of the skirt, instead of legs.

_Lamia!_ Tom realised. Tom Apparated in panic.

A Merlin-damned Lamia has Lord Slytherin’s rings!

===//===

CRACK!

The ‘study group’ turned at the noise, and saw Sally, looking slightly perplexed.

“Well, that was a thing,” Sally muttered. She looked over towards the rest of them. “Did someone lose a peeping-tom-in-training?”

“It was probably that kid who was following me since Diagon,” replied Fellblade, as she unfurled her wings. “Ahh! It feels good to stretch my wings. The train was too crowded. I think the kid was one of those sheltered Pureblood kids, whose parents didn’t want them finding out ‘the disgusting half-breeds’ can join civilised society and was tailing us out of curiosity. I was surprised he jumped on the ‘filthy muggle’ train.” She looked slightly apologetic. “I stopped paying attention to him when we left Kings Cross …sorry.”

“Did you see the look on his face, when he saw us?” Juniper commented. “I honestly think he only knows about the races in the Magical-Britain-Approved edition of Newt Scamander’s book.”

“Hang on,” Hermione was next to comment, shock apparent in her voice. “Are our books missing necessary information?”

Daphne and Theo tried to hold their laughter. Daphne was the one to reply. “If you remove any references to demi-humans having their own cultures and traditions from the International editions, along with adding a ‘they’re all primitive savages’ slant to any of the intelligent races, you will have your Ministry Approved edition. Merlin, they even removed the reference to dragons with magical cores being able to transform to ‘human’ shape.”

“I’m sure you’ll find a few interesting books in my Aunts’ library,” Sally commented. “Pick a subject, it’s covered somewhere in there. Aunt Shizu also keeps a sizable collection of regular books, technical Journals and engineering textbooks. I remember reading something relevant to my new job, and I want to show it to the boss. I made a bet about ‘transparent aluminium’ from Star Trek being a real thing, and now I need to ante up with the specs for Aluminium-Nitride.” 

She looked towards a nearby ‘archway’ made of trees and vines, which started glowing. “Aunt Fern must be taking you via the scenic route. Probably to show Neville the gardens.” Sally then looked towards the only adult in the group. “Where are my manners?” She held out her hand. “I’m Sally Slytherin. I’m guessing you’re the ‘school approved’ chaperone.”  
The woman shook Sally’s hand in greeting. “Aurora Sinistra. I’m their Astronomy teacher.”

“Did anyone tell you what to expect?” Sally asked.

“No,” replied the teacher. “Why?”

A mischievous grin appeared on the Lamia’s face. “When we walk through, face the fountain and look up.”

===//===

**Artificial Satellite Pleaides**

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!!?? THERE ARE TWO SUNS!!!” Aurora was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Leaves swirled around her as, for the first time since she was a child, her magic ran wild.

“Calm down Professor,” said Fern, as she laid a comforting hand on the astronomy teacher’s shoulder and glared at the laughing Lamia near the fountain. “I know Violet and Juniper both told you that there were other habitable planets in the universe. They obviously neglected to mention our family owned some of them.”

“I thought they were being fanciful,” she replied. “Muggle science books have only stated life on other worlds was theoretical.”

“It breaks both my hearts to hear you say that,” Violet theatrically placed her hand to her forehead, then started giggling, setting the other children off. “I’m only ever ‘fanciful’ when explaining who ate all of the chocolate ice-cream.”

“Tsk!” Fern shook her head. “You’re all terrible. Anyway, let’s all head up to the mansion. If any of you want a better look at the planet we’re orbiting, we’ll take you to the observation deck once you’re all settled.” 

==//===

**Diagon Alley, early August.**

Violet growled quietly at the line-up, blocking the door to Flourish and Blots, and glared at her booklist.

“Look at”  
“that line,” said Fred and George.  
“It looks”  
“like we’ll”  
“have to”  
“enter in”  
“small groups.”

“I’m finally understanding why Mum encouraged us to learn other languages,” she said loudly. “There are only so many swearwords in the English language. What drugs were the new DADA teacher mainlining to choose works of fiction for our textbooks.”

Dorea and Fellblade nodded in agreement.

“Hmph!” several women in the line reacted to the comment. “Gilderoy Lockhart is a great hero! Almost as amazing as Harry Potter!”

“Harry Potter is the best!” commented a redhead that the dragons recognised as the youngest Weasley child. “When he finally returns from his adventures, he’ll remove all of you Dark creatures that Headmaster Dumbledore was tricked into letting inside Hogwarts!”

“That’s right!” exclaimed Molly. “I’m sure Dumbledore is gathering proof that it was Dark Magic that allowed all of those creatures to enrol.”

“…we’re right here….” muttered Juniper. “Have a magical being for an ancestor back in the Iron Age, and it’s a revered ‘Creature Inheritance’ or a ‘blessing of Hecate’. Have one for a parent or grandparent, and you’re a ‘filthy half-breed’ or a ‘dark creature’.”

“Molly, we’ve talked about this,” said Arthur. “Just because they look different, doesn’t make them evil.”

“Just don’t get any of Lockhart’s books,” Dorea commented. “They’re as fictional as the Harry Potter books.”

Ginny’s face went red with anger. “You’re so lucky I don’t have a wand yet! Harry is so amazing! He fought a dragon when he was only eight!”

“The only ‘fight with a dragon’ Dorea had when she was eight,” Violet whispered to Fellblade, “was when she didn’t want Mum to cut her hair to remove the bubble-gum stuck in it.”

Dorea smacked her sister in the arm. “It took forever to grow my hair that long,” she whispered back. “Having long hair helps to separate my old life as ‘Harry’ from my new life.”

“Quetzalcoatl’s G-cups!” exclaimed Leo, as he exited the shop. “That blonde ponce just announced he’s our DADA teacher for this year.”


	6. Chapter 6

Dragons in Hogwarts  
Chapter 6

**Location: Somewhere ‘outside’ of time and space**

Mizuchi inhaled the scent of her biological mother, as she made the most of the hug she was receiving.

“It’s only been a week ‘zuchi,” Freya whispered, as she drew her wings around her youngest biological child. “…or has it been longer for you?”

“Including a few ‘side-trips’ it’s been sixteen years,” Mizuchi quietly replied. “I’m a mother now. Four girls, ranging between eleven and twelve. Violet and Dorea are both ‘mine’. They're both dragons. Juniper and Venus are ‘Fern’s’. ”

Freya pulled back slightly, to look in her daughter’s eyes. “Collecting strays like me and Erika?” she asked, referring to Mizuchi’s other mother.

“No!” she protested. “…well, maybe… does one of Fern’s Hornet-pixie swarms changing their Familiar bond over to me count? Also, I’ve formed a Bond with a TARDIS.”

Freya raised an eyebrow. “What eccentricities did this one develop?”

“What makes you think she’s eccentric?” Mizuchi asked defensively.

“Let’s see… Harmony integrated a System Holographic Interface Program module into herself and linked it to a Remote Holographic Projection micro-drone swarm, which she uses to project herself as an Arachne. Cassiopeia, instead of Bonding with Hiroshi, chose to bond with Ventris, which I didn’t think too unusual, given she’s as good an engineer as I am, but then she made herself that ‘human’ body, so she could join in on ‘sharing’ your brother with your other sisters-in-law.”

Mizuchi chuckled. “He and Ventris each got a kid out of that.”

“Don’t deflect the subject to your brother.”

“Shizu sort of did the same thing as Cassiopeia,” Mizuchi replied. Then in a very quiet whisper, almost a mumble, she continued. “…she also likes to dress up as a maid…”

“Oh no,” Freya tried to suppress a laugh. “It’s your aunt Mizuchi and Tohru all over again. You’re even raising two dragons.”

“Dorea is an Ushishir Thunderwing,” Mizuchi began to giggle. “When it’s finally safe to head back to your subset of universes, I so have to introduce her to Kanna.”

The mutual laughter of mother and daughter were interrupted by someone clearing their throat.

“Freya, Mizuchi, the rest of the group is about to arrive.”

The two women reluctantly parted.

“Fine, boss. Let’s get this meeting started,” Freya replied, and headed over to her seat at the nearby conference table.

===//===

Mizuchi leaned on the wall near the coffee urn, as she observed the meeting between Archangel Azrael and the majority of his ‘off-duty’ and ‘part-time’ subordinates. Even though she was invited to this meeting, and was offered a seat, she had declined the offer. Mainly because, with a few exceptions, namely her friends Yuri and Susan, Azrael himself, Susan’s grandfather ‘Bill’, Azrael Jr, and her mother, everyone else at the table was terrified of her.

She had killed one of them.

To be fair, Mors had gone rogue, and it was necessary to put the psychopathic entity out of the multiverse’s misery. Azrael’s only complaint when she executed Mors was that she did it too mercifully.

The meeting’s primary agenda, as always, was to allocate ‘shifts’ to cover the …gap… in the cycle of life, death, and rebirth that was made with Mors’ removal from ‘his’ subset of universes.

There was the ‘usual’ argument from one of the ‘older’ Reapers, of course. “I can understand Freya being here. She ascended to Godhood, as recognised by the pantheons of several universes. However, Susan, Yuri, and Mizuchi are only part Reaper.”

“Then it’s a good thing the position is only part time,” countered Azrael. “Now, the next point of order is how to deal with universe 887-12’s Albus Dumbledore and help that poor Phoenix that was turned into a Horcrux.”

“Actually,” interjected Mizuchi. “I did some research. If it was only a Horcrux, the problem would have been solved on the first Burning Day after its creation. Dumbles made his Phoenix into a [translation unavailable] Phylactery. Because it was made using a willing sacrifice, it can only be removed by Dumbledore himself, or one of his direct descendants.”

“In other words,” moaned Azrael, as he banged his head on the table, “we need an alternate Dumbledore, which isn’t going to happen because the only one who wasn’t a self-righteous, too-many-hyphens was a non-magical who took the business-end of a Martian Death-ray, the same day you rescued the Black family Patriarch from the same fate.”

===//===

**Artificial Satellite Pleaides**

Daphne stretched as she woke up in one of the guest rooms and looked at her sister, still sleeping next to her and cuddling a plush snake she acquired from somewhere in the mansion. 

It was amazing how quickly her parents allied with ICEP, when they realised it was a fast way to get a foothold into various international markets. Money was money, and she and Astoria were staying with the Kobayashi family, while their father was negotiating a shipping deal in Japan and their mother was in the Mediterranean, at the Lamia ‘capital’, creating a branch-office for her newspaper and fashion magazine businesses.

 _Thank Merlin they didn’t know about the interplanetary markets,_ Daphne thought. _I need some way to surpass them when I become an adult._

There was a knock on the door, followed by Miss Pleaides’ voice. “Daphne, Astoria. Breakfast is just about ready.”

“Thank you,” replied Daphne. “We’ll be out in a few minutes.”

She woke her sister up, eventually, got them both dressed for breakfast and headed towards where she remembered the dining room to be.

“I don’t remember that door being there,” commented Astoria as they walked down the hall.

 _That’s right,_ Daphne thought. _Astoria hasn’t been here before, and she was half-asleep when we arrived last night._ “It probably wasn’t,” she replied. “The mansion’s …magic… creates rooms as needed whenever family and friends visit.”

“Ohhh,” realisation bloomed on Astoria’s face. “That explains the double doors that Arachne just walked out of.”

Daphne looked in the direction her sister was looking in and saw the aforementioned demi-human attempting to tuck some uncooperative blonde hair behind her ear with one of her clawed hands.

“…’morning,” greeted the Arachne, with a bit of a yawn. “I’m Cassandra. We arrived last night, while you two were asleep. Dad and the others got called for Emergency Deployment. Sorry about the manners. My sisters and I are still on American time. Meh, let them sleep.” She blinked each of her three pairs of blue eyes and half-focused on the snake still in Astoria’s grip. “I see Sally must have checked up on you overnight. I take it this was your first night away from home, little one.”

“How did you know?” Astoria asked.

“Mum made Bob there for Sally when we were little,” she replied. “He has a small pouch of lavender inside him, to help you sleep. She loaned him to Draco when he and his mother first moved into our family’s mansion.” She looked back towards the doors of her room. “Let’s get breakfast…” she yawned again, “it sucks that I can’t just wake myself up with a cup of coffee.”

“Why not?” Astoria asked curiously. “Don’t they have any here?”

Cassandra laughed. “Aunt Mizuchi running out of coffee? Never going to happen. She even has the stuff from Q’onos. Charlotte, Kuroko and myself just aren’t allowed to drink it until we’re older. Caffeine affects Arachne in the same way as alcohol affects humans.”

Following Cassandra, the three of them ended up in the kitchen instead of the dining room, where they saw a sight that slightly confused Daphne and her sister, albeit for different reasons. Dorea, Sally and **two** versions of Miss Pleaides in maid uniforms were cooking breakfast and, through the servery window, she saw a **third** Miss Pleaides setting the dining room tables alongside Draco, Lyra, Leo and Azrael.

“What the…” started Daphne.

“Good morning Daphne, Astoria,” greeted Dorea. “I see you’ve met my cousin, Cass. You already know Sally.” She pointed to the two maids. “Those two are Aunt Shizu’s …uh…”

“Daughters,” supplied the Shizu in the dining room, as she leaned on the servery counter. “I grew them from my auxiliary consoles, so ‘daughters’ is the most accurate term for them.”

“Good morning,” chorused the two maids.

“I’m Genny,” said one.

“I’m Vi,” said the other. “Breakfast will be ready soon. Tak is just bringing Violet, Juniper and Venus in from the garden.”

“Why aren’t your house-elves cooking?” Astoria asked. “You’re obviously not too poor to own any.”

“The reason is simple,” replied Genny. “House-elves get space-sick. All of the family’s House-elves are either at Cassiopeia Station or Peverell Manor because we don’t want them getting sick.”

“We’re on a spaceship,” Daphne whispered to her sister. “It’s just a different type to what is in that book I showed you.”

The external doors to the dining room opened, to reveal Dorea’s sisters, with slightly damp feet and flowers in their hair, being escorted by another Shizu.

“Alright you lot, time to eat,” Genny shooed everyone into the dining room. “We’ll feed the other two when they wake up.”

===//===

**Avalon Gardens**

Hedwig was walking from the small kiosk on the grounds, back towards the soccer field, eating an ice-cream cone held between her wings, when something grabbed her leg.

“What the hell?” Hedwig jumped back, dropping her ice-cream, startled by the unfamiliar house-elf that seemed to have no sense of personal space or (given that she was an Owl-harpy) self-preservation.

Unlike the house-elves at Cassiopeia Station, this one looked underfed, wore nothing but a grubby pillowcase, and was covered in injuries. It looked up at Hedwig with watery eyes. “Missy Dorea Potter’s Owl!” he squeaked. “You must stop Missy Dorea Potter from going to Hoggy-warts this year!”

Hedwig gave the house-elf a threatening look, causing it to flinch. _How dare this creature presume to relay orders for my Mistress! Only her mothers have that sort of authority!_ Hedwig towered over the small creature. “Why shouldn’t she be going? The rest of her family is.” _//Mistress, I need you.//_

“Because there is great danger there!” The house-elf’s eyes bulged, and he grabbed a nearby stick, and started hitting himself with it. “Bad Dobby! Bad!”

(POV change)

The stick was suddenly gone from Dobby’s hands, and he was surrounded by five other scary females.

…okay, he found the giant Hornet-pixie scary, but the other four were positively terrifying. His instincts kept telling him to apparate out of there, but for some reason he could not. It was all Dobby could do to not soil himself.

The one with the pink-tipped red hair looked towards Missy Dorea Potter’s Owl, and appeared to be communicating silently about him, if the eye movements and other gestures were any indication. The others in the group were watching him, almost daring him to try to sneak away. Dobby made himself look smaller, realising he had kicked the proverbial Doxie nest.

“Dobby, how do you know Dorea Potter is going to Hogwarts?” asked Red.

“And don’t try to lie to us,” said Blonde.

“Because we’ll know,” said Green.

Dobby cringed. “D-dobby knows Missy Dorea Potter’s magic signature from when she was a baby. It keeps disappearing, but I know she was at Hoggy-warts last year. Dobby helped Mistress Lily Potter with the spell to hide Missy Dorea Potter as Master Harry Potter. Dobby used to be a Potter house-elf until he was sold to Bad Master after they died.” 

Dobby tried to punch himself in punishment, but found vines restraining his hands. Somehow, they KNEW he was going to hurt himself. “I know Missy Dorea Potter’s Owl is Missy Dorea Potter’s Familiar. I just can’t find Missy Dorea Potter to warn her.”

Dobby felt his eyes go watery.

Red lowered her glasses and looked right at Dobby. He shivered involuntarily as he realised she was looking right at his magic with those almost-familiar green eyes of hers. “Let his hands go,” she said to Green, before replacing her glasses and looking back at Dobby. “I have no idea who ‘Bad Master’ is, but I will be finding out why all of the Potter elves were sold off, when the Potter family was clearly not extinct.”

Dobby believed Red, when she said it.

“However,” she continued. “Dorea Peverell-Potter is still going to Hogwarts this year. I think you might be overexaggerating the danger.”

“But-“ Dobby tried to protest but was cut off by Olive-green.

“She was safe last year, with a pack of Alpha-predator demi-humans on the grounds. I’m sure she’ll be safe again this year. Her adoptive family isn’t going to allow anything to harm her.”

Whatever was stopping Dobby from escaping suddenly ceased, and he Apparated out, with a loud CRACK!

 _They don’t understand!_ Dobby thought, as he slunk back into Bad Master’s kitchens. _Red, Green, Blonde, and Olive-green might be safe, but all the others won’t be!_

He couldn’t save everybody, but he still needed to save Missy Dorea Potter and Missy Dorea Potter’s Owl!

Dobby needed a new plan.

===//===

**King’s Cross Station, September 1st**

“Everyone, calm down,” called George.  
“I’m sure it’s just a minor hiccough,” said Fred.

“We’re not going to be able to maintain a Perception Filter over a group this large for too long,” Dorea whispered.

“I’m working on it,” Juniper whispered back. “This was not only deliberate, but thorough. We need a professional to untangle this mess. I could do it, but I’d have to completely strip and rebuild the enchantments and rune-work, not to mention resynchronising both sides of the pathway. The Ministry really need to have something in place for contacting them in an emergency if an under-aged magical is stranded.”

Violet’s slightly-glazed look returned to normal, as she disconnected from the ECN. “Mum has alerted Amelia Bones, and she’s notified the train to wait. I’ve been given permission to bypass the entry with a Gate.”

“But those are Dark Magic!” gasped one of the parents.

“Then it’s a good thing I have a licence,” Violet replied, as she opened a Gate into Platform 9 ¾. “If you want to file a complaint, the ICEP office is just up the road.”

(Just out of sight, a frustrated House-elf banged his forehead against a nearby wall.)

“Fred! George!” cried a worried-looking Molly Weasley. “We were so worried when you didn’t come through, and then we couldn’t get back!”

“Uh, Mrs Weasley?” Violet began. “Was Ron with you before the platform was blocked off?”

Molly looked up sharply, her look of distaste at being addressed by a demi-human quickly changing to an apologetic one. “I thought he was with the twins,” she said uncertainly.

“We’ll check the train,” Fred and George chorused, as the boarding whistle sounded. “If he’s onboard, we’ll get Juniper to contact you.”

“Right,” replied Violet, as she reopened the Gate. “We’ll search the train station. If we find him, we’ll Gate directly to Juniper.” Molly and Arthur followed them back through.

===//===

After systematically searching the entire station complex in pairs, the dragons met Molly and Arthur back at the barrier to platform 9 ¾, to be greeted by Amelia Bones and a wizard from the Department of Magical Transport.

“What are you four still doing here?” asked Amelia. “The train left an hour ago.”

“We were looking for Ron Weasley,” replied Dorea. “Mr and Mrs Weasley said he didn’t go through the barrier with them and he definitely didn’t go through my Gate. We’ve just spent the last hour searching the station for him.”

Violet gestured to a small child half-hiding behind Fellblade. “We also found a stray Firstie. His ‘guardians’ dropped him off at the front, and he’s been trying to find the platform since seven this morning. He nearly got snatched by some dude in a tinfoil hat.”

Fellblade snickered. “Smegging nutjob was raving about needing a sacrifice to keep the Fate-weavers away from him.”

The adults all gasped in shock, then a suspicious look came on Amelia’s face.

“What did you two do?” she sternly asked.

The eleven-year-old looked up at her, a look of excitement on his face. “Fellblade body-checked him into the barrier to platform six and held him there, while Violet used that radio-thing on her arm to call her cousins. There was this weird noise and this blonde Arachne appeared, with two redhead ones either side of her. The moment he stopped struggling against Fellblade and saw the three, he pissed himself. It was awesome!”

Amelia gave Violet and Fellblade a deadpanned look. “Where is he now?”

“Cassandra strung him up in a web and took him to the security office,” Violet replied. She then looked to the DoMT wizard with a look of concern on her face. “I’m not familiar with the spells used to set up the magical platforms, but is it possible for someone to get …stuck… between the entry and exit?”

Molly and Arthur went pale, as did Amelia.

“No, no,” he reassured them. “This blockage has a House-elf magical signature. If young Mr Weasley was inside, it would have pushed him out before sealing the barrier.”

“So, where’s Ron?” Molly started panicking. “Maybe another weirdo took him!”

“Maybe he just took the Knight Bus,” said Georgie. “I know it goes outside of London. Is there a bus stop in or near Hogsmeade?”

“If it does, by the time the train gets there, Ron will probably still be nauseous from the journey,” commented Cassandra, as she joined the group. “The security guards handed one Mr Josef Yaxley, according to his identification, to the police. I would suggest a couple of Aurors meet them at the station. He reeks of memory modification. As for you four, take your friend to school before I tell Aunt Mizuchi.”

One of the redheads passed over a trunk. “Don’t forget this.”

Violet opened a Gate, and the four dragons and their charge stepped through.

Amelia sent off a Patronus and addressed the three demi-humans and the Weasleys. “I’ve asked Shack and Moody to collect Yaxley from the police, using that ICEP code we were given. Now, Mr Jones needs to unblock a barrier, and the presence of too many people, especially three Arachne, as you’re supposed to be solitary creatures, is going to attract unwanted attention.”

The two groups went their separate ways, with the two redhead Arachne chatting with Arthur about preparing a surprise for his twin sons, and Molly reluctantly conceding the fact that, as much as she dislikes demi-humans, at least these ones aren’t the ‘Dark Creatures’ Dumbledore keeps going on about at Order meetings.

“Mr Weasley…” Cassandra hesitantly asked, when they reached the car park. “…your car is still the Anglia, right?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s not here.”

()()()()  
Notes:  
Genny is the Engineering auxiliary subsystem  
Vi is the Environmental auxiliary subsystem  
Tak is the Tactical auxiliary subsystem  
(Yes, there are other ‘maids’ grown from the other auxiliary subsystem consoles)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay in posting. Work, house-moving and other chaos happened

Dragons in Hogwarts

Chapter 7

**Platform 9 ¾, around the same time**

Tom gazed at the familiar red and black steam locomotive. Just seeing it again almost made up for having to go through Hogwarts a second time around.

He glanced at his ‘minders’ on either side of him. Travers was the son of one of his ‘other self’s’ loyal followers and the, reluctant-looking, Nott was the son of one of the last few surviving members of his old Knights of Walpurgis. Neither of them knew who he really was. Only Abraxas Malfoy and Theodore Nott Sr knew his true identity. As far as everyone else was concerned, ‘Tom Gaunt’ was the last surviving member of a Gaunt branch-family that had settled in the colonies.

_Why does Nott keep looking towards the barrier?_ Tom wondered. _I know he’s only escorting me under his father’s orders. Maybe he has friends he originally planned to meet._

“What’s got your interest, Nott?” drawled Travers. His face contorted to a sneer when he looked along the platform. “Bloody hellfire,” he growled. “More of them. How they allowed demi-humans to enrol in Hogwarts, as if they were actual people, is beyond me. It’s bad enough they allow mudbloods to attend.”

Curious, Tom craned his neck to get a better look.

**_Amongst the different clusters of students and families crowding the platform was the red-haired Lamia with Slytherin’s rings!_ **

She appeared to be escorting several blonde children, one of which strongly resembled Abraxas Malfoy, and some young demi-humans onto the train.

“It’s political,” commented Nott. “We’ve all heard the rumours about the Potter heir.”

“Which one?” Travers commented. “The one where Harry was really a girl, placed under a variant of a Von Hauptman glamour, or that they faked his death to ‘rescue’ him after some well-meaning wizard screwed up the protection wards where he hid Harry?”

“Father says the ‘Light’ families pushed to have the restrictions on who could enter Hogwarts lifted ‘just in case Potter’s magic signature had been affected by what happened with He-who-shall-not-be-named’.” Nott laughed. “Uncle Abraxas thinks the ones that faked Potter’s death did such a good job of hiding Potter, Dumbledore panicked and let all-and-sundry in just so he could get his ‘Golden Boy’ back into his charge. The Weasley twins are running a betting pool. I’ve placed a Galleon each way that ‘Harry’ is one of the Kobayashi sisters.”

“I’ve got eight Sickles on it being Granger,” admitted Travers. “No way in hell could a mudblood know that much about magic in her first year.”

Tom was about to comment, when he noticed the Lamia tilt her head, as if listening to something.  
She suddenly turned towards a group of adults, who seemed to be frantically waving their wands at the barrier between Platform 9 ¾ and Kings Cross and whistled loudly.

“EVERYBODY! MOVE AWAY FROM THE LEFT OF THE BARRIER!!” she shouted.

Moments after everyone complied, Tom’s jaw dropped in surprise as a runic circle composed of bright pink light appeared on the wall beside the barrier, which then resolved itself into a Portal.

“Bloody Kobayashi just has to show off,” Nott grumbled.

“Which one?” asked a nearby girl, that Tom recognised as a Greengrass. “Dorea is almost as good as Violet with the Gate spell. Besides, it was opened with good reason. Apparently, something disrupted the barrier, and this was the only way to get everyone to the platform.”

“Why didn’t Violet just Gate everyone straight to school?” Nott asked.

“What? Ruin the experience for the Firsties to have their first trip on the Hogwarts Express?” she replied.

===//===

Juniper was going over some paperwork that was spread over the bar of the old club car that formed a ‘counterpoint’ to the converted dining car the Prefects used at the other end of the train, when she was interrupted by a familiar voice.

“I know you’ve been skipped up a year, but that doesn’t look like Arithmancy.” said Daphne, “What is it?”

“It’s the quarterly reports for Grunnings Manufacturing,” Juniper replied. “I’m part-owner of the company, due to some investments Mum made. They make general-use tools anyone can use, for regular retail stores. Plus they make specialist’s tools for various industries, such as jeweller’s drills.”

“But we’re only twelve,” Daphne replied.

“So?” Juniper commented. “Even though I’m not old enough to make legal decisions, I can still familiarise myself with what’s happening with my company for when I am old enough. I’m surprised your father hasn’t started showing you the basics for his Import-Export company. I know you want to get into a similar career path when you’re older.” She pointed to some papers with one of her right hands. “That is the cost vs projected profit report for getting the Royal Navy to purchase a new plasma-cutter I’ve designed.”

Daphne then spent a semi-interesting hour or so learning something she knew she would potentially need for the future.

Juniper was distracted from her impromptu teaching session (Draco and a couple of first-years had wandered over) by the sound of beeping coming from the transponder beacon on the table behind her just as a first-year opened the carriage door.

===//===

Tom was still dazed as he stood in the antechamber with the other first-years and glanced sideways at the green-haired girls in the enchanted mobility-chairs who were chatting to a blonde girl with a cork necklace and radish earrings. For some reason, they were over in a corner, with the one in the oak-like chair looking more nervous than most.  
He thought it was bad enough in his first life being thought of as an ‘ignorant muggle-raised’ due to his lack of magical knowledge, but the comment from Juniper Dwllphyrn, who he saw at the Gryffindor table, somehow annoyed him even more. She knew, at only twelve years old, more about magic than he did at the time the diary horcrux was created and **all she wanted to do in life was become an aircraft mechanic!!!**

_**Flashback** _

_“How did you open a portal in something that moves?!”_

_Half a dozen demi-humans looked at him as if he had a room-temperature IQ, especially the four part-dragon girls that had just led a lost-looking first-year out of a portal, onto a moving train, as if they were just walking through a regular doorway._

_“What are you talking about?” stated a voice from near the club car’s bar. It was the part-insect demi-human who mentioned ‘Trap Street’ (which he still couldn’t find, even on a Wizarding map) a month or so ago. “All portals have moving exit-points. When the planet already rotates at 460 metres per second, and orbits the sun at 30 kilometres per second, what are a few extra kilometres an hour? It’s not like they were aiming for another planet.”_

_“All of that …ritual… crap,” added the green-haired girl who he would later find out was Venus Black, “location, stellar-alignment and whatnot are just shortcuts for people who haven’t been taught how to use magic properly.” She then pointed towards a metallic disc that had flashing lights on it. “Besides, Juniper built a transponder beacon for Violet to lock onto.”_

_**End Flashback** _

He only half paid attention as Professor McGonagall started calling out names.

_Hmm,_ he thought to himself, as Venus Black’s chair scuttled towards the yellow and black table. _Her family might not be too happy that she’s a ‘Puff._ He quietly chuckled at the green-haired girl’s placement. _At least she isn’t a Gryff. I could just imagine their family Head having a stroke if that happened._

Eventually, it got to his turn.

“Gaunt, Tom.” He kept his Occulmency protections up, as he felt the all-too-familiar ‘brush’ across his mind, and kept his expression in check, as Dumbledore’s twinkling eyes focussed on him. He sat down and placed the Hat on his head.

_//Hello again, mister Riddle. Maybe this time around, you won’t have the fear of being sent back to a London suffering from Luftwaffe air strikes and heavy rationing influencing your decisions…_

===//===

Juniper watched the Sorting of the First-years, politely clapping as each joined their Houses and a little more enthusiastically as her little sister and her Aralune friend each went to Hufflepuff. It was a shame their friend Luna went to Ravenclaw instead of joining them, but it was a good thing the Hat knew the best place to assign the two ‘purely’ plant demi-humans was in the House run by the Herbology Professor.

She sat through the usual start of year announcements, looking sideways at Fred and George when the ‘Forbidden Forest is forbidden’ announcement came up.

“Finally,” Dumbledore’s voice carried over the Great Hall. “You may notice that some of our students are not wearing the usual robes that form part of our uniform. It was reluctantly decided by an agreement by the International Confederation of Wizards, and the Interspecies Cultural Exchange Program that those students with additional limbs, such as wings, should be able to move them without constraints. For these students, robes are encouraged, but not compulsory, as is wearing as close to the correct uniform as possible.” He gave a meaningful look towards the Slytherin table.

_Obviously, he still doesn’t understand that Leo is male, regardless of his appearance,_ Juniper mused.

The food all appeared on the plates, after the announcements, and everyone started reaching for their favourite dishes. While spooning some mashed potato onto her plate, Juniper felt a tug on her shirt. She looked down to find one of the younger House-elves looking nervously up at her.

“Yes Fizzy?” she asked.

The House-elf’s eyes widened in surprise. “Missy Juniper knows Fizzy’s name!”

“I know your name because Head House-elf Tiffy wrote to me. She said she was assigning some of you newbies specifically to the demi-human students, because the more senior House-elves are afraid of us.” She glanced towards the Ravenclaw table. “Some more than others.”

Fizzy looked where Juniper indicated and suppressed a shudder.

“Now, what can I do for you Fizzy?”

“Miss Tiffy said we’re no longer allowed to kill off Doxie nests,” he replied. “Miss Tiffy said we need to cage them, and then see you.” He looked up at Juniper.

Juniper brushed one of her left hands over the ICEP liaison badge pinned to her shirt. _Of course, I’m the ‘go to’ for this sort of thing,_ she thought. _I’m the only known demi-human here, who isn’t sitting right next to a dragon during meals, so I get the badge… yay me._

===//===

**Elsewhere**

Eriksson ducked back behind the ruined wall just as bullets grazed where his head was mere moments ago. What was originally supposed to be a UNICEF supply-run to a remote orphanage was now a firefight with a group of insurgents on a ‘recruitment drive’ for the local warlord.

He glanced over at O’Reilly, one of their ICEP tagalongs. He had not seen the young officer replace the drum-mag on his assault rifle even once. “How many rounds does that hold?”

“As long as the built-in power cell is charged, infinite,” he replied. “Try to patent a prototype, Star Trek-style, food replicator, and they reject it as ‘too improbable’ but weaponise it into an ammo-hopper, and they throw money and women at you.”

The elf-girl covering the rear door snickered. “Hiroshi turned down the women. Between Ventris, Cass, myself, Renata, and both Gemini twins, keeping us all satisfied is pretty much a full-time job.”

_Damn,_ Eriksson thought. _It’s usually the quiet one. Lucky bastards._

“Jones!” he called out. “Any luck getting a signal?”

“Sorry sarge!” the woman replied. “Signal’s still being jammed.”

“What about Tempus?” he asked, as he sent another bust of fire to keep the attackers pinned. “Is she still out of it?”

Jones looked over at the blonde sitting in the Lotus position. “She’s not out of it sarge,” she replied, flinching as a stray round came into contact with a …barrier… which flared blue. “I think our ICEP tagalong might be a mage.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” replied the squad’s medic, from behind her. He was too busy trying to keep the orphanage’s caretaker from bleeding out, and didn’t see what just happened.

“There it is again!” said Jones. “She’s protecting the kids with some sort of magic shield.”

Eriksson started laughing. “I should have realised. Think about it. If all of those ‘mythical’ races from storybooks are real, why not wizards?”

There was a quiet chuckle from the black-clad man assisting the elf at rear of the building. “’Wizards’ he says. Typical human, categorising anything they don’t understand as ‘magic’.”

_I cannot believe Magister, UNIT’s number one Most Wanted, is assisting us in defending kids,_ Erikson thought. It had surprised him, when he saw the black-clad man ‘hitch-hiking’ along the dirt road. Then again, where is he going to go? It was obvious he had lost his transport somewhere along the line. Probably while avoiding the Warlord’s people.

“I think the shield is a happy coincidence,” Magister commented, as he fired his pistol at something that caught his eye. “As for what young Cass was doing, while sitting on the floor, look north west.”

The insurgents were suddenly acting agitated, and Eriksson could hear the familiar sound of jet engines. He risked a look in the direction indicated.

“Oh my god!” Eriksson heard Jones exclaim, as a pair of the strangest jet fighters he had ever seen buzzed the courtyard. “Those look almost like Super-Veritechs!”

Tempus cracked open an eye. “Almost?” she turned her head towards Magister. “Koschei, you better not freak out like Theta Sigma did.”

“What are you…” he was cut off, as they felt, then heard the rumble of …something… with massive jet engines.

_And now the natives are panicking,_ Eriksson thought, as the insurgents broke and ran. _Holy shit! It’s larger than a Globemaster!_ “…” _It has VTOL?!!_

Hanging above where the insurgents used to be was a massive …cargo plane?... Its forward boarding ramp was open, and a pair of demi-humans, a Lamia and an Arachne, were firing at any targets they happened to spot.

===//===

The Master looked on, amused, as a pair of massive robots, that he assumed were the fighter planes, herded the surviving prisoners towards what he recognised as a TARDIS that very definitely did not have a functional chameleon circuit. “I do not recognise that configuration of spacecraft, beyond being possibly human-built,” he mused out loud.

“You wouldn’t,” commented the Arachne, Ventris, that was approaching them. “When we salvaged her, I had to resign myself to the fact she was too damaged for her outer-hull to be within Gallifreyian standards.”

The blonde woman, Cass, jumped up into her arms and planted a passionate kiss on her lips. When she ended it, she pivoted to face the Master. “This is my Mistress. I created this form from my primary console, and a few other components, to better service her and her mate.”

“Don’t ask what model TARDIS she is,” commented Ventris. “She was too damaged when we found her, and I’ve been tweaking and customising her for years. As for her ‘main’ outer-hull, we based it off a Firefly class cargo ship, from a science fiction series in our timeline. Happily, she looks close enough to current technology to get away with people thinking she’s an experimental VTOL cargo plane, that didn’t make it into proper production due to being too expensive.”

“So, you salvaged and retrofitted an alien spacecraft,” said Eriksson, as he caught part of the conversation. “I always figured UNIT was formed for more than dealing with terrorists.”

He then pointed towards the robots. “And those two? They look like they’re straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon. Robots or armour?”

“Armour,” replied Ventris. “We were only given permission to build those two as escorts for the ship, as the Americans got shifty about the UN being able to use more than a strongly-worded letter when one of the members decides to step over the line.”

===//===

**Hogwarts, early morning**

Tom woke up early and checked the time.

_Five o’clock,_ he thought. Perfect. _The teachers and prefects should be asleep by now._

Sneaking out of his room, Tom had to suppress a surprised gasp, as he spotted Abraxas’ grandson, Draco, and his effeminate blonde friend …Leo?... quietly heading out of the second-years’ room. They were both wearing embroidered green Chinese-silk shirts with black pants. They were met in the common room by Greengrass, Davis and Bulstrode.  
_What are they up to?_ Tom thought.

Following them as quietly as possible, he saw them meet up with four Hufflepuffs in similar clothes, except with black shirts. One was a blonde girl who was apparently Draco’s adopted sister, Lyra. The other was a red-haired boy with similar facial features to Leo. For some reason, he was wearing sunglasses and carrying a quarterstaff.

“Let’s go,” said the redhead. “The others will be wondering what’s keeping us.”

Tom stealthily followed the twelve-year-olds, abandoning his original plans in order to satisfy his curiosity.

_What in Merlin’s name did they do to the Quidditch field?_ Tom’s jaw dropped. There were lights mounted in the goal-hoops and lines marked in the sand.  
_//Who’s your tail?//_

_//Probably Gaunt.//_

_//I see he ignored our sister’s advice about buying a set of binoculars.//_

“Some of us aren’t telepathic,” hissed Draco.

Lyra laughed. “Sorry about that, brother of mine.”

There was a loud whistle from the stands. “SEP array is up!” called Juniper. “Oi, Gaunt!” Tom flinched. “I didn’t know you were interested in Battle Magic.”

“This isn’t a regulation duelling hall,” Tom sneered. How did they see past my Notice-me-not Charm?

There was a peal of loud laughter from Dorea, as she adjusted one of the lights, while hanging from the pole. She dropped down, causing the sand to crater. It was then smoothed over with a hand gesture. “Regulation,” she scoffed. “Tickling hexes and disarming charms,” a sword materialised in her hand, “are for kids. Okay, kiddies-“

“Oi!”

“Sorry, Higgs. Violet and myself have just completed our Certificate Four in Sorcery, so we can now practice without one of our Heads of House supervising. Before we start, are there any questions?”

“Who’s the half-naked blue girl hanging off Violet, and why is she translucent?” Higgs asked.

“Vera is Vera,” replied the girl in question. “Violet is Airen.”

“This is Vera,” Violet clarified. “She’s a Pharmacopeia Slime, and she formed a Familiar bond with me during a trip to Shanghai.”

“Can we get on with training?” Draco commented. “Some of us only have three-figure lifespans.”

===//===

“What’s wrong with Gaunt, mister Black?” Snape asked Draco, as Leo patted a shaking Tom on his shoulder.

“He decided to observe our morning training session,” Draco replied.

“The ones Headmaster Dumbledore ‘strongly suggests’ should be done under his ‘watchful eye’ inside the castle?”

“Yeah those. I’m still not sure if it was Longbottom’s Field of Thorns that freaked him out, or if it was Violet animating all of those briars in counter-attack.”

“If we did all of that inside,” Leo added, “the House-elves would feel obligated to clear up the aftermath. Aunt Mizuchi and Dad both emphasise that cleaning up after training is important. It lets us see the consequences of our actions. Mum, Mama and Aunt ‘Cissa also regularly take us to St Mungo’s for the same reasons.”

“It wasn’t any of those,” Tom whispered. “It was seeing Juniper doing target practice. She vaporised a target by focusing a Lumos into a tight beam.” _That, and she pulled out a pair of ray-guns, and repeated the process on another pair of targets. When did muggles get ray-guns, and how did she get them to work around magic?_

Leo chuckled. “She learned that off her mother. Was it the ‘creative’ use of a ‘harmless’ spell or the fact she followed up by blasting the adjacent targets with those laser sub-carbines she always carries?”

“Her family has that effect on people,” Snape drawled. “I just wish young Miss Dwllphyrn would take some of her achievements more seriously. That wide-area Notice-me-not runic array is genius, but that …name… she gave it.”

“Douglas Adams described it, Juniper just made it a reality,” replied Leo.

===//===

Dumbledore tried to hide his scowl as he looked over the tables. He still could not find Potter, and his best lead was the damned betting-pool the Weasley twins had set up. Potter had to be one of the Kobayashi ‘sisters’. The problem was she could be either of them. Violet was the most likely candidate, as scars caused by Dark magic never fully heal, and that snowflake pattern over the girl’s eye could easily be the lightning bolt transfigured as a clever disguise. However, he still couldn’t be certain, as Dorea had Lily’s mannerisms.  
He would just have to take a bit longer ‘adjusting’ the Goblet to be ‘less specific’ over its selection conditions.

===//===

Juniper ignored the looks she and Neville were getting from most of the table as they sat down for Breakfast.

“Gred, Forge, has your brother explained to either of you or to Percival why the Whomping Willow has a Ford Anglia shaped dent in it?” Juniper asked faux-innocently.

“Lay off my brother,” growled Ginny. Her face blanched, as two small shapes flittered around Juniper’s hair.

“Are those”  
“Doxies in”  
“your hair”  
“oh cousin”  
“of ours?” asked the twins.

“Why, yes they are. This is Galil, and this is Uziel,” replied Juniper, as she gently stroked each of her new Familiars’ cheeks, causing them to croon in pleasure.

“They look different,” Lee commented. “Like more streamlined versions of Llif-Gadwyn and Yuki.”

“My magic altered their DNA slightly,” she replied. “This would have been what they used to look like millennia ago, before the Fae of your world were cursed.”

“Where’s the rest of the nest?” asked Percy.

“Died of fright when I got near the cage they were in,” replied Juniper. “Hornet-pixies are natural predators of Doxies, and one my size showing up would be equivalent to one of you getting staked out in front of a full-grown dragon.”

“But they’re pests,” Percy commented.

“So are rabbits. Doesn’t stop people keeping them as pets,” she countered. “Anyway, Ronald, you need to work on your impulsiveness. …and your table manners.”

Ron scowled as he shovelled more food into his mouth. “We were going to miss the train,” he muttered with his mouth full.”

“So, your solution was to steal a car? You could have just waited for your parents.” Juniper turned towards Percy. “Percival, be honest with me. How often did your brothers drop Ronald on his head?”

“Oi! We”  
“resent that”  
“insinuation!”

Neville raised an eyebrow. “Get him checked by Madame Pomfrey. Maybe he’s got a spell on him, like how that Dursley kid in Hufflepuff had his magic tampered with.”  
“Here come the owls!” called a random Ravenclaw. “Oh look, there’s a red envelope!”

===//===

The school year was off to a reasonable start. There were a few protests at ‘the stupid demi-humans’ being skipped up a grade, until it was pointed out several Ravenclaws and a few Slytherins had also taken advantage of ICEP’s study materials and an ICW testing facility. 

Classes were proceeding as normal. Snape started to use a new insult: ‘a blind Hufflepuff could brew a better potion’ even threatening to refer them to Azrael O’Reilly for remedial lessons, just to rub salt into the wound.

…and then it was time for the Ravenclaw third-years to have their first DADA lesson…


	8. Chapter 8

Dragons in Hogwarts  
Chapter 8

**DADA classroom.**

Gilderoy Lockhart glanced out of his office window as he did some last-minute straightening of his robes. He smiled to himself when he saw the number of girls making bee-lines for the front rows, some of them holding copies of Voyages with Vampires, Gadding with Ghouls or, in one case, one of the Adventures of Harry Potter books.

 _Looks like one of my fans found out about ‘Jay Kaye’ being one of my pen-names,_ he thought. _Good thing Potter hasn’t shown up to contest for royalties on those yet._

He frowned slightly as a well-endowed for her age olive-haired Ravenclaw …Gringott?... placed her hand on an equally well-endowed redheaded Hufflepuff …Bones?... and shook her head. They both moved to the rear of the classroom, to join those girls with the demi-human Familiars.

 _Lucky bitches,_ he thought. _I can’t even get a normal Familiar, and those two get beauties like that, willing to do **anything** for them? _

“Time to begin,” he said quietly to himself, as he forced down his jealousy, put on an award-winning smile and opened the door to his adoring fans.

===//===

 _/Is he flirting with thirteen-year-olds?/_ Vera asked Violet over her Familiar bond.  
_/It does look like it./_ Violet replied. _/Are we still going to hide your intelligence?/_  
_/Of course we are, Airen!/_ confirmed Vera. She then picked up the origami frog she’d made out of Lockhart’s exam. “Look Airen! Vera make too too pretty frog!” _/Are they buying it?/_

Violet patted Vera’s head. “Very good Vera.” _/I have no idea./_

Vera ‘ate’ the parchment construct.

 _/Don’t push it too far./_ Violet warned, while Vera leant into her hand. She quickly placed an innocent expression on her face as Lockhart approached with a stack of test-papers.

Lockhart returned to the front of the classroom. “You have thirty minutes. Start – now!”

===//===

Lockhart was watching as quill went to parchment, when he heard a suppressed snort of laughter from the back corner.

“If he really got rid of the Bandon Banshee,” whispered Bones, “then he couldn’t possibly have dealt with those ghouls. Your mother would have investigated a temporal distortion that large.”

“Maybe the Celestial Intervention Agency sent someone ‘official’ to investigate,” whispered Fellblade. “Your family aren’t the only adult Time Lords in the local area.”

“Find something amusing, Miss Gringott?” Lockhart asked.

“That colour shirt with those robes,” came her smart-arsed reply.

“See me after class, Miss Gringott.”

===//===

**Later, Professor Flitwick’s office**

Professor Flitwick was sitting at his desk, with Fellblade sitting in the chair opposite. To anyone listening in, all they would hear from the half-goblin teacher and the goblin-raised Hungarian Horntail in humanoid form was a string of Gobbledygook.

“Care to explain why Professor Lockhart’s nose is broken, Miss Gringott?”

“If he touches me there again, I’ll snap his neck and set him on fire. Not necessarily in that order. Only Violet gets to touch my fire pouches …and maybe Vera, if Violet is joining in.”

“Your fire pouch- …oh!” Flitwick’s expression darkened. “I’ll be having words with Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore.”

“The Headmaster will just sweep it under the rug. I still can’t believe that piece of Coprolite got past whatever passes for a vetting system here.”

“He was the only applicant.”

“’Only applicant’ my tail-spikes. He was the only **human** applicant. ICEP forwarded at least four other applications to the school board.”

===//===

**Somewhere in the English countryside**

Mizuchi was assisting the Gringotts’ Asset Recovery team in cataloguing artefacts in a recently foreclosed manor when she dived sideways to avoid a trap someone missed, accidentally coming into contact with an ornate mirror.

“Kuso!” Mizuchi swore, as she felt the familiar tingle of translocation magic.

Instinctively, she dodged just as a spell that would have exploded a human’s head brushed past her, shattering what was the mirror’s twin.

There were around two dozen robed figures in a ritual circle, half of which had wands, staves and firearms aimed at her. The lead cultist, dagger still in hand, was standing beside an altar with a struggling, naked, woman chained to it. “Kill her!”

Without hesitation, Mizuchi used her magic to launch the mirror shards into the necks of the targets equipped with firearms.

_/Yuki, go rescue the human. I’ll deal with the cultists./_

Mizuchi then materialised her halberd and threw it as hard as she could towards the rapidly-coalescing shape near the head of the altar. With aloud roar, she launched herself into combat…

===//===

**Moaning Myrtle’s Bathroom, October 31**

Tom stepped back as the sink shifted to reveal the secret passage. After finding out that ICEP not only ran a ‘correspondence school’ for magic, and that they covered subjects that were unavailable at Hogwarts, he made discreet enquiries. It was a shock to him to find out that the Certification system meant that magical prodigies could graduate faster, at least theoretically. Their only limits were their practical assessments, which could only be done at ICEP- and/or ICW-officiated facilities. That ‘definitely not an alien’ Juniper was going for her Certificate 4 over Yule, and the only reason she hadn’t gone for the assessment over summer break was having a bonded Familiar was a prerequisite. Fortunately, he knew just where to find a ‘suitably impressive’ Familiar.

Tom was shaken from his musings, as he reached the vault-like door of the Chamber.

{Open.} he hissed, and watched as the sculpted serpents shift.

He was immediately shocked by the brightly-lit sight in front of him. Gone were the crumbling pillars. Gone was the stagnant pool. Gone were the bearded-statues.

The majority of the Chamber had been turned into a gymnasium, with exercise equipment, punching bags and even a boxing ring. Vincent and Dudley were working one of the punching bags. Gregory was lifting weights with Juniper spotting. Daphne and Blaise were using the boxing ring as an impromptu fencing area, using a set of wooden swords that left chalk marks as they sparred.

A small section of the Chamber was turned into a café. There was a rune-inscribed doorway near the counter labelled ‘Diagon Alley’.

Tom’s eye was drawn towards movement above the café’s counter. In Avada-green was a sign declaring the establishment as ‘The Serpent’s Nest.’

**_There was a massive Basilisk’s skeleton suspended above the sign._ **

_My other self must have forgotten to put it back into hibernation,_ Tom thought. _Poor thing must have starved to death._

“Oi, kid!” called out the redhead behind the counter. It was the Lamia from before! “You’re letting the heat out. {Close. Lock.} Next time, Gaunt, ask your Head of House for a passkey for the students’ entrance.” She pointed towards where Salazar’s statue used to be.

“Wasn’t there a statue of Salazar Slytherin there?” Tom asked.

“I never did like that statue of Marvolo Gaunt,” she commented. “I swear that vain bastard would have bankrupted the extended family if Grandpa Salazar hadn’t made arrangements with Gringotts. Gaunt’s grandkids still almost managed it by bribing the Ministry. The fifth …no, sixth Goblin rebellion was because of that ruling.

“Anyway, the old residence is now a reading and study room. You may read the copies we made of Grandpa Salazar’s ‘safe’ books that are on the shelves. Do not leave a mess. The Research Library is only available to someone with a Certificate 6 in magic or a specialist qualification in Magical Archaeology, as the contents are very fragile. And you’re definitely not allowed access to the Forbidden Library until you’re of age.”

 _I must find out what hidden knowledge is in this Forbidden Library,_ Tom thought. _What new rituals and Dark Magics will I find?_

“Sally!” called out a blonde Arachne that was adjusting one of the overhead lights. “Telling a kid not to do something usually results in them seeing it as a challenge.” She lowered herself down on a line of silk thread. “Kid, the ‘Forbidden Library’ is Slytherin’s porn stash. You’re only eleven.” 

===//===

**Several weeks later**

Two ‘rogue’ bludgers shattered as Dorea and Violet demonstrate that some Kung Fu styles can be used to manipulate and project Ki, even while inside anti-magic wards.

Just out of sight, a House-elf in a filthy pillowcase grabbed hold of the door to the broom storage closet and repeatedly smashed his other hand with it.

===//===

**Great Hall, just before winter break**

The students were just returning from their last Hogsmeade visit before Christmas, when they were greeted at the main doors by a voice that actually caused the four dragons to growl.

“Eeep!” Lockhart squealed before quickly regained his composure. “It has come to my attention that some of you feel I have been …lacking… in some areas of your DADA training-“

“The understatement of the century,” whispered a voice Lockhart was sure was Violet Kobayashi. However, he continued on, as if nobody had spoken.

“- and have been sneaking out to the Quidditch field for unsupervised activities. This will just not do, so I have convinced Headmaster Dumbledore to let me start a duelling club-“

“Of course he did,” possibly Dorea Kobayashi whispered.

“- which will meet once a week in the Great Hall,” he pushed the doors open.

===//===

“Quetzalcoatl’s bouncing G-cups,” Dorea moaned, as she saw what looked like a bog-standard beginner’s duelling stage in the middle of the otherwise empty hall.

“Agreed,” conceded her sisters and cousins.

“Where are the shielding wards to keep the audience safe from stray shots?” Juniper commented.

“Now, now. You’re only twelve, young …lady,” Lockhart condescendingly replied. “A stunner or jelly-leg hex won’t do any serious injuries.” _Stupid bug! I should have asked Professor Flitwick to apply those. Oh well, too late now._ “How about a demonstration? Professor Snape has graciously agreed to be my assistant.”

A bored-looking Snape walked towards the stage.

===//===

 _So, that’s your game,_ thought Snape, as he climbed the small flight of stairs, _This is Dumbledore's poor attempt to get this lot back to learning **only** the spells you want them to learn. _

He watched the reactions of the students, as the moron prattled and posed. Most of the girls, and a few of the boys, were still mooning over him. He casually flicked out a disarming spell, sending his opponent into the padding on the wall behind the stage. The idiot then tried to play the ‘exchange’ off as if it was deliberate.

 _And, he’s prattling on again,_ Snape had to intervene on moron’s latest stupid idea. “Professor, there is a reason why Violet and Dorea only duel each other outside.

“I’m sure all of that bouncing around, doing those fancy foreign acrobatics is good fun,” he condescendingly replied.

Snape had to restrain himself from reacting, as he noticed the sisters’ expressions in response to where the moron had focused his eyes at the ‘bouncing’ comment.

 _No, no, no,_ Snape blanched when Dorea’s sword suddenly appeared in her hand, as if from nowhere. The dragons were already on edge after what happened with Fellblade, and Dumbledore threatening ‘repercussions’ for any attacks on faculty.

He then noticed something odd. The sword’s blade appeared to have a fine channel running from tip to hilt, almost looking like it was now split into two separate blades. “Dorea, I thought that the Sword of Gryffindor could only ‘take on that which would make it stronger’.”

Dorea smirked, as she pointed the weapon towards one of the training dummies that decorated the Hall. “Fervojo,” she quietly whispered.

Lightning surrounded the blade. With a loud CRACK half of the dummy simply disappeared and there was a hole in the wall behind it.

Snape felt the castle’s Wards trigger. Dorea was very definitely Lily’s daughter. He still had fond memories about when she broke Black’s nose after the Shrieking Shack incident.  
Dumbledore’s look of panic, as he Apparated into the Hall was priceless.

“What is going on here?” he demanded. He suddenly looked flustered. “What did you do to Godric’s sword, young lady?”

Dorea returned her weapon wherever she had hidden it. “ **My** sword, you mean. We were just giving an example to the Professor why some of us practice over near the Quidditch pitch. Oh! He seems to have done something I thought his mother would have trained out of him while he was still a Hatchling.”

Juniper waved a hand in front of his face. “The lights are on but no one’s home.”

Fellblade giggled. “Way to multitask, Dorea. With one spell, you have simultaneously shown the school why we practice the UN annexe course classes outside, and drastically improved the quality of this year’s DADA classes.”

“I’ll go fetch Madame Pomphrey,” called Higgs. “I think you broke him.”

Almost as if a spell was lifted, everyone went about their own business, ignoring Dumbledore.

“You, Professor Flitwick, and I will have words later,” Snape whispered to Dorea.

===//===

**Start of term Hogwarts Board Meeting**

Dumbledore was having a hard time keeping it together. These young upstarts were bringing him to task. Him, the defeater of Grindelwald, being lectured like a child! 

“Professor Dumbledore, the Board isn’t happy,” commented Lady Greengrass. “You should have notified us the moment Lockhart had his breakdown. We should not have found out from our children when they came home for Yule.”

 _I need to check the expiry dates on the loyalty potions,_ Dumbledore thought.

“Some of us are still trying to figure out how a fiction writer got that position,” commented a green-haired woman. ( _Some token Dryad from that farce of an organisation, to make demi-humans think they’re ‘real people’,_ thought Dumbledore.) “My daughters are better-qualified than him, and they’re not even thirteen yet.”

“Mrs Black,” sneered Daedalus Diggle. “Gilderoy Lockhart is a highly qual-“ 

“It’s Dwllphyrn,” interrupted the Dryad. “Reg is my Consort, not the other way around. Lockhart either took credit for the work of more-deserving witches and wizards, or he has been using time travel artefacts without submitting the necessary documentation to the relevant authorities. The only ‘qualifications’ he has demonstrated is that he’s a shameless flirt.”

“Did no one bother to properly verify his claims?” asked a voice from a device attached to the Dryad’s wrist. A tiny figure fluttered into view. “The events of two of his books happened at the same time.”

“Llif-Gadwyn has made a good point,” commented Lady Greengrass. “I still have no idea how none of this was found out sooner.”

“Memory Charms,” replied Llif-Gadwyn’s voice from the device. “The illustrations in the books are laced with them. Lockhart didn’t anticipate what would happen when a blind twelve-year-old uses his reader device as a bookmark. The only reason **we** didn’t find out about them sooner, was Mizuchi only made it a few pages into ‘The Secret Treasure of Crystal Cove’, which, by the way, was directly plagiarised from Scooby-Doo. She shoved the entire series, unread, into an incinerator. We did place our concerns about Lockhart with the DMLE, but the Wisengamot still refuses to acknowledge anything brought to them by anything ‘less’ than a half-blood.”

===//===

The rest of the year went relatively smooth, which worried Dumbledore. The temporary DADA teacher assigned by the DMLE, concentrated on reinforcing the basics, and insisted on supervising the demi-humans’ morning ‘training’. Even though it was still being held at the Quidditch pitch, having an Auror watching meant they wouldn’t be doing anything Dark.

He still hadn’t been able to analyse the components on that spell Kobayashi had used, and was a little disturbed that she could use a sword as a focus.

The other thing that was vexing him, was why hadn’t ‘Gaunt’ unleashed the Basilisk? He had plenty of opportunities, and the release of the creature would surely flush Potter out of hiding. He needed to get his plans back on track.

The portrait of Phinneus Nigelus Black watched and shook his head. Gryffindors were never as good as Slytherins at plotting things.

From his conversations with his youngest descendant, Venus, he knew precisely who the Potter Heiress was, and he knew there was no way Dumbledore could spin it to get Wizarding Britain to accept a Dragon as their ‘heroine’.

Animagus or not, the girl chooses to live as her adopted species, thanks to Dumbledore’s mismanagement of the child’s post-war placement. She just doesn’t feel safe as a human.

Any overt attempts to kidnap the girl from her adopted family could also see Dumbledore immediately labelled as ‘the wizard who broke the Statute of Secrecy in front of the whole world’. Mizuchi made safeguards for her children, adopted or otherwise, to ensure it.

 _Face it, Dumbledore,_ he thought. _You were outplayed by a ‘Slytherin’ less than half your age, who could play the long-game much better than you, and you still haven’t realised it because Mizuchi Kobayashi’s first move after being forced into your game was to convince the Hat into placing her in Hufflepuff._


End file.
